#led an unstable woman to end her live in front of them | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

youarejesting · 4 years ago

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Sea [1/2]

Beta: @lillielil @aroseforyoongi @seokjinssymphony @kpooplifeforever @explosiveranga & my good friend Z (let me know if I left anyone out.) Rating: 17+ Pairing: Idol!Yoongi x Reader Genre: Action, Adventure, Angst, Fluff, Comedy, slow burn, slice of life. Words: 6.8k

Summary: After your plane to Korea takes an unexpected detour, you are stranded with someone you aren’t even sure speaks English. As the race begins to stay alive, emotions run high and tempers short. The unlikely contender in the survival race is love which snuck up on you both.

The thought of a thirteen-hour flight didn't bring you much joy. Why would it? Being trapped in a small box with wings, not to mention being stuck in said box with multiple people breathing recycled farts and eating some sort of wet styrofoam they called food that would most definitely give you food poisoning. Oh yes, what a joy it would be to be in a seat for hours on end, letting your skin slowly dry up.

Arriving at the terminal, you stood waiting for them to start boarding. You would have been sitting if there was a single seat free. Seriously, some asshole had even dared to lay across no less than five and a half seats, his bag resting on the empty chair at the end.

He was wearing all black and looked comfortable in his jeans and hoodie. His black cap pulled down over his eyes and you could see the bleached blonde hair sticking out from underneath. Big chunky headphones on his ears made it possible for this man to drown out the world around him.

You glared at his legs, growing tired, knowing that within a few hours you would be begging for the chance to stand up. If you were to take a mental count, there hadn’t been any nice experiences you could recall in regards to traveling on a plane.

Did that reflect the quality of service or your standard of air travel? No. Obviously, your standards were realistic, not expecting the flight time any shorter or the staff to give a foot massage or anything outrageous.

You really didn't want any extra luxuries other than what was offered in the pamphlet — and yes, that meant you chose first-class — because if you were to suffer, you would do so in the best environment.

Unfortunately, the reality of it was that there was no better or more comfortable way to travel. Checking in, you would be boarding first before the other passengers, not really a privilege. However you got in line anyway behind the young man who had previously been lounging across the airport seats. He was holding up the line having lost his passport and you were getting more and more pissed.

You were simply just having a bad day.

A woman behind you started openly arguing, exclaiming that this man was not allowed to ride first class as he clearly wasn’t fit for it. Bringing up his style of dress and the headphones around his neck. You turned, glaring daggers at the woman until she became silent.

Society taught people to judge based on appearance, that everyone fit into a category, never mind the old adage to ‘never judge a book based on it’s cover’. Stil, you were always respectful and treated others equally, maybe even getting to know a person that you wouldn’t in other circumstances. It always surprised you how much you enjoyed taking a risk and getting to know them.

Once you showed your ticket and passport, you traveled down the long hall towards the plane. You saw the man in front of you talking with another man. He seemed to respect him and was reading him a schedule from his phone. You raised your eyebrows and smiled at the young stewardess who welcomed you on board. Her hair was pristine in a tight bun and her crisp, dark blue outfit was paired with a red scarf.

Stepping over the small gap, you felt the cold of the air conditioning, yet the air still felt thick. There were three places you could go to feel this type of cold: the dentist, an airplane, or the movies. First class was spacious with only a single cubicle on either side of the aisle. You took your seat. It was like personal rooms where you could close a sliding screen for more privacy, even though you were sitting next to someone, you wouldn't be able to see them at all.

The seats were more like arm chairs that one could lay back completely in, made with a brilliant blue leather. The cubicle room was complemented in a similar shade but with red features. You had a tv and a tiny minibar that had a small selection of drinks and snacks.

The flight attendants took all the passengers through the safety instructions. You could practically write them at this point. However they added a few things you had never heard. You had never heard such in-depth instructions going beyond the general life jackets, floatation devices, and first aid kits.

Never before had they told you about the airbags that would be deployed if you crash in the ocean. Apparently the emergency escape slides doubled as floatation devices and could hold up to one hundred and thirty people comfortably. They even explained how they detach these rafts from the fuselage and that they have ropes that allow them to be tied off to each other or the airframe.

Distracted by a tired male sighing beside you, you wondered who would fall asleep during the safety messages. Sure they were boring, but even you pretended to care. When you turned to see the culprit, he was disappearing behind the plastic divider of his cubicle dragged by his long pale fingers.

Well, at least you had some privacy. It was something you were thankful for, you wanted to get comfortable, or as comfortable as you could.

Perhaps these new instructions and information were deemed irrelevant to domestic flights. Or perhaps it was for the very enthusiastic kid they led through the first class discussing more of the plane's anatomy. “What if a wing falls off?”

“The plane is really sturdy, the wing wouldn’t just fall off” She grinned, “Let’s see what the pilot is doing and we can get your mum a picture wearing the captain's hat!”

After the flight attendants thanked everyone for listening, the plane took to the sky. You closed up all sides of your cubicle and requested to be only woken for meals. The stewardess was very diligent and for that you were grateful.

The journey was nearing the six hour mark and all that one could see was clouds and the ocean. The collection of empty water bottles were a poignant reminder to relieve your bladder.

You stood up and waddled determined to go to the bathroom. It was inconvenient to drink so much water but you didn't want to get dehydrated.

Feeling much better, you took a few minutes to look in the mirror and moisturise as your skin was feeling particularly dry already. Startled from your self care routine by a light rapping on the door, you packed up your things and pulled open the door. Unfortunately, at that moment, the plane shook.

It was like something from a romance novel, the way you fell against him and yet, there was nothing elegant or poetic in the way you fell against him.

Your face slammed into his chest and his head hit the wall with a heavy thud. "Sorry, I'm sorry"

"Shibal" he said, his language was something unlike you have ever heard, it was rhythmic and sounded like a song. His voice was so low and rumbly it almost sounded like he was purring.

You weren’t well versed in other languages or cultures, so you didn’t know what he was saying. This was your first time leaving your country. If it wasn’t for the damn holiday raffle at work, you wouldn’t have even left your house. Every other flight you had ever been on was domestic and therefore your suffering was short lived, but this flight was long and you were getting rather bored. It seemed your mind was reeling trying to absorb all that it could and currently that meant the poor man you had body slammed into the wall was under your perusal.

His body was thin unlike yours which was curvaceous. His hair was dark and shaggy making his pale skin almost ghostly. He had sharp cat-like eyes that were quite intimidating as they glared at you and his small downturned lips were yet to speak. He seemed like a man of few words. All this coldness was juxtaposed by his cute round nose. You could tell from his features that he was from Asia, but you couldn't pinpoint where.

Grabbing your shoulders, he started to push you off of him, when the plane shook again and you both fell back into the small bathroom. Your back hit the toilet, and a searing pain bloomed from the impact causing your body to lock up as it radiated through you.

The seat belt light came on. You both scrambled to your feet bumping into the walls, sink and each other from the unstable winds shaking the plane. Struggling back to your seats when the cabin pressure changed. There was a creaking sound and the plane started shaking. You immediately felt a sick sense of dread. The pilot spoke calmly about turbulence and requested everyone return to their seats. But the pair of you couldn't move down the aisle to your seats.

There was a sound like a car backfiring and someone from economy class shouted about the wing being on fire. Your grip on the young man's coat tightened and a terrifying sound like metal groaning filled the cabin. That didn’t sound like regular turbulence, you were sure of that.

Sharing a horrified look with the young man, you got up the courage to try to push off from the wall. Unsuccessful, you were once more pressed against the wall. The plane was plummeting. Out of the corner of your eye, you spotted the emergency box. What was this emergency and what in that box could fix this situation?

"You need to return to your seats,” the stewardess said. The smell of smoke was strong and it filled the inside of the plane quickly. You hadn’t even seen the stewardess trying to climb through the plane. Her grip strained on the walls and seats as she fought against the force pushing her back. “We are making an emergency landing."

The metal sound was louder. Shrieking like nails on a chalkboard, it pierced through the cabin. You watched as the side of the plane ripped completely off with the ease of someone removing the plastic off a new fridge. There was a feeling of being weightless before a drop on a roller coaster, and then it was like your stomach was left behind. The stewardess was sucked out from the cabin behind you.

You and the young Asian man were sliding backwards down the aisle trying to find something to grab onto. The floor in first class was some sort of linoleum and gave you a nasty burn as you slid. It was like fire against your skin. As the pilot fought with the plane, you practically bounced off every seat.

It felt like you were weightless for a brief moment as you were lifted off the ground, your back hit the roof before you smacked the floor again. All the wind had been knocked out of you.

The pilots were fighting against the drop, so in the moment of calm before the plummet, you grabbed the leg of an economy class seat as it was bolted to the ground. You looked at the young man, watching the panic as he realized he was too far away to hold on and dangerously close to the large opening. He began slipping out of the plane, his hands flailing before clamping around your ankle. The two of you were almost hanging outside the plane.

Everyone in economy class was panicking and wearing oxygen masks. No wonder you couldn’t breathe. Gasping for breath, you cursed yourself for liking all those action movies that made this look easy.

“Hold on!” You all but screamed more to yourself than the poor guy holding your leg. He was being completely battered by the wind. You felt his hands slipping and you reached down with one hand to grab his wrist and he grabbed yours. He looked thankful.

“Shibal,” he groaned, his voice straining. Your body was being stretched. The cold metal was unforgiving, and it tore apart the skin on your palm. Your eyes were watering in protest to the wind and smoke that was drying them out.

The drink trolley that the stewardesses had been moving through the aisles had gotten loose and went flying down the plane. It hit an old man in the back of the head. You knew he wouldn’t make it, and speaking of, it was headed straight for you. You watched in fear, like some horrifying game of chicken as the trolley came for you. Thankfully, it bounced on the floor inches from your hand and flew out of the plane.

It was a mix of flinching and the force of the wind that made your hand on the chair slip. You slid further out of the plane, grabbing the exposed shell of the plane with your free hand. Your other hand desperately clutching the young man's hand watching in horror as he smacked into the side of the plane unconscious. “Shit!”

His body was limp and you had to do something. With all the strength you had, you tried to pull his flailing form closer to protect him. Out of the corner of your eye, you saw the ocean quickly advancing. You were going to hit the water.

The breeze pressing against you was fierce. Your eyes were dry, making you think of your eyedrops in your carry-on luggage. You could see the water coming up quicker now; you tried to gauge what would be a survivable height. Knowing you had a higher chance of surviving freediving as opposed to hanging halfway from the plane, where you would both slam head first into the plane. You decided to take the leap.

Screaming in absolute terror as you watched the fast approaching water, you let go just in time. It was equivalent to a few stories on a building from the ground. Wrapping him in your arms, you pointed yourselves down deciding to break the fall. Lifting your free hand above your head like you were doing a high dive, you hit the water. It was such a shock, the liquid was so cold it caused your muscles to lock up.

Your adrenaline was pumping, and one of your arms felt numb and unresponsive. You swam oddly to the surface, gasping when you felt the air on your skin. He was unconscious, and you held his face out of the water.

The plane wasn't too far away and for now was on the surface of the water. The emergency exit inflatable slide, which doubled as a raft, had been deployed but no survivors seemed to climb out.

You swam in a side stroke to keep your damaged arm and the young man's unconscious form out of the water. You hoped he was going to be okay. The only thought in your head was making it to the raft and you were doing everything in your power to get there, even contemplating leaving him behind. But you weren't going to give up, a part of you wanted to prove you could do it.

Reaching the raft felt euphoric. Taking a deep breath you pushed him into the raft. Doing a quick check of his head and body, you noticed he was breathing oddly. You turned him on his side and tried to clear his airway. A little bit of water trickled out before you performed CPR. Your saving grace came when he coughed and spluttered, placing him in the recovery position and hoping he would be okay on his own for a moment. You looked around for any more survivors. There was luggage floating around, and you picked up all you could from the water.

Walking along the inflatable back into the plane, the water was not as high in first class. This was probably due to the hole in the plane in the economy. The right side being the only one of the inflatables that had inflated beside the plane. Keeping the plane precariously afloat balancing on two inflatables which had malfunctioned and inflated under the plane.

Moving quickly and wading through the icy water, you grabbed the emergency kits on the wall. You had passed by deceased passengers and tried not to look. It was eerie and unbelievable even though it had only just happened.

Bags littered the water and you guided them towards the exit and put them on the raft. You could save these people's possessions for their family, or there could be items inside that could be of use and save your life.

You also noticed the flight attendant area and raided the cupboards as quickly as you could. You grabbed the medical kit, some slippers, a range of very thin blankets that were wet and even some snacks carrying everything back to the floatation rafts. As an afterthought you braved a second trip back into the plane to grab your and the other man’s overhead luggage as you knew he would likely appreciate it.

Finding a bunch of cell phones floating around the cabin. You grabbed them all hoping one would be waterproof. You found a few that were still turned on, but only one seemed to have some sort of signal. The plane creaked as you started making the emergency call.

“Come on” you begged the phone to connect. The whole plane creaked again and tilted; it wouldn’t last long. You had desperately searched for survivors but there was no one obviously alive. You tried your best to check their vitals, but time was running out. Hopefully, you wouldn’t be cursed for pronouncing everyone dead.

"Hello, this is an emergency service hotline?" A voice cut through the silence, you looked at the phone about to cry in relief "fire, ambulance or police"

"Hello, we were in a plane crash, my name is y/n, we were on a flight from Los Angeles to Seoul"

"What is your location?" the woman said, confused by your description.

"The ocean" you hissed "we are on a life raft"

"How many people are with you, what are their names?"

"Just one. I don't know his name. He is asian. Um really thin, um, has dark hair and—”

"You seem to be breaking up" the emergency operator said with the voice cutting out. You looked down at the phone in your hand and sighed. Of course, if everything was going wrong, a phone in the middle of the ocean apparently won’t save you. You thought to yourself, ‘it is 2021 so why isn’t service available everywhere?’ Pocketing the phone you began making your way out the plane.

You headed back to the inflatable and made the decision to cut the plane free. Scared that it would bring the raft down with it. Grabbing more luggage from the water, you thought it best not to watch the plane sink. It would only make you feel worse.

The time went by slowly. It took hours for the plane to disappear. Even though you had promised yourself not to look, you had. Taking glances as the plane slowly sank and you drifted further away.

The moment the plane was no longer in sight, you curled up and let the tears fall. The sun began setting and the heat turned into a bitter cold. Your wrist was still quite swollen, and you decided to wrap it as you drifted along. You had been so sure that there would be something or someone to see you drifting, and you would be saved.

However one cold night became two, and then three, only breaking for the scorching heat of the day.

You thanked yourself for watching all those ‘lost on an island’ movies and television shows; you had learned some things along the way. You also had your father to thank for always dragging you along to the volunteer emergency services programs, ones where you learned how to survive in a forest. At the time you thought it was super lame for your friends to go to nice hotels by the beach for their holidays and you were making some sort of mealworm dish while making stick shelters.

Going over the information you had in your head, you knew water was the priority. The instructor had said humans can go three weeks without food, three days without water, three hours without shelter and three minutes without air.

The sun would dehydrate you quickly. You had made a small shelter with luggage and blankets to protect you from the sun.

If you didn’t find land, you were going to have to make some sort of man-made evaporation device to create water. As it was, you were slowly getting the unconscious young man to drink little amounts of bottled water, for he too needed to stay hydrated.

The man you were with had awoken the third day. He seemed a little freaked out about being alone at sea. You explained calmly, not wanting him to do anything drastic and he sat there processing things.

You gave him a bottle of water and something to eat. The two of you continued drifting, not speaking a word to one another. You spent most of the time trying to craft something to float on the ocean and create clean drinking water.

(This evaporation device floats on the ocean and mimics rain by the water droplets sticking to the plastic cover over the whole device when weighted in the middle it then drips back down into a bottle. I can find a reference picture if you need. [Here] [Here] [This one is like what I made in 7th grade camp])

But you couldn’t get the water to land in the bottle and the bottle to stay upright. He was no help, just laying in the shelter out of the sun. The raft was big enough for about one hundred and thirty people. And yet, the two of you sat close by and didn’t say a word.

You were covered in sweat and felt absolutely disgusting. It was time for you to get changed. What a stupid way to die, not from dehydration, or malnourishment, or even sun exposure, but from lack of hygiene. It was decided.

“I am getting changed, don’t look,” you breathed, opening your carry-on bag.

“I don’t want look,” he muttered back in English and turned away. You quickly put on something that covered your shoulders and tried getting some rest. You didn't want to alarm him, but you both had consumed the last of the water and food rations.

It was late that night when you heard a different sound. The raft was moving a lot more. These were big waves and a part of you hoped it was not a tsunami or whale activity.

When the sound got louder, you were reminded of the beach when waves crashed on the sand. Looking up, you saw something big approaching. It was a body of land. Suddenly, your chances of survival greatly increased, now that you had a way to get out of the water. Nervous about putting your hands in the pitch black water, you looked at your companion peacefully sleeping and made the decision to paddle slowly. Anything to increase your chances of getting to safety. You eventually washed up on the beach, arms aching and stepped out to drag the raft onto the sand.

It was late and still dark, but you had to do something. Thinking that perhaps if you found someone, you would both be saved straight away. You waited on the raft until the sky lightened, and then you got to work collecting sticks and starting a small fire. You took the empty water bottles, hoping to find a clean water source or some fresh water that you could boil.

You walked to the highest point in sight, not seeing any signs of large predatory animals was a good sign. When you reached the top, you felt a sense of satisfaction as you had overcome the many trials and tribulations. You made it through a plane crash, survived on the water, and made it to land.

Looking around, you saw something bone-chilling. This was an island and judging by the lack of people, houses or establishments, it was uninhabited. There was no civilization to be seen. You saw the tufts of smoke from your fire and tried not to cry. You were stuck here until someone could rescue you.

Pushing the minor breakdown aside, you thought about water, it was important. Scanning the island, there seemed to be a small waterfall and tiny lagoon at the bottom. Since the rain, the waterfall was running pretty fiercely. You mapped out a path back to the beach which would detour past the waterfall.

By the time you reached the beach, your arms were exhausted with the weight of the now filled water bottles. He was awake and briskly brushing his reddened cheeks with his sleeves, turning his back to you. Sympathising with the man who probably thought you died, fell overboard or abandoned him.

You pulled out the metal pot from the plane and began boiling the water, in an attempt to kill any bacteria in it. The tide was going out. you knew you should be thinking about food as the next priority, but you wanted to sleep. Being primarily awake for a few days was taking its toll.

It took everything in you to get yourself to move and get to work. Taking large rocks, you carried them into the water until you were knee-deep. You were building a V- shaped wall, so when the tide came in, it brought with it fish and when the tide went out, they would be trapped.

Pouring the now cooled water into the bottles, you started thinking about your plan. First, you thought about short-term needs, in case you were rescued soon, and then long-term needs, in the event you weren’t rescued for months or perhaps years. You paused, forcing yourself to think and accept the fact that there was a chance you would never be rescued.

The Asian man had gotten up and looked around hopefully. Handing him a now clean and sterile bottle of water, you frowned looking around with him. "There is no one here." He didn't say a word, staring at you while drinking slowly.

You huffed, trying to figure out how you two could survive on an island. He watched you fuss around trying to make a shelter out of sticks but it collapsed everytime.

“Just no,” he muttered. You tried not to openly sneer at him. Grabbing the raft, you dragged it across the sand. As the raft was built for a large group, it seemed all you were doing was digging your feet into the sand. But little by little it was dragged up the beach thanks to the tide. It took some convincing but you had gotten help from the young man. The two of you madly struggling to lift the inflatable slide to a tilt against a tree. It was still inflated so you hoped you could use it for something else if needed.

Before the tide came in that evening, you ran out to the water. Your hopes were crushed when you found no fish and saw that the wall had broken. Carrying more large rocks into the water and making the V bigger and stronger, things weren't looking great, but you were trying to do your best. Cold from splashing around in the water, you went back to the shelter, but the fire had gone out by this point.

Looking at the young man, you let out an exasperated sigh. Did he not care for his life or yours? Contemplating while gathering more wood, you realized that you had been doing all the work, while he was just lazing around. “We need more wood, come help,” you gestured for the young man to follow, but he sneered at the thought and leaned away from you.

“I just lay uh here and wait to…” he thought over his words, slowly forming an English sentence “die or be rescue,” he mumbled. You were too exhausted to argue. It could wait until tomorrow, and you would both freeze tonight. Maybe then he would understand the importance of working together towards a goal.

You felt absolutely disgusting. hearing the loud patter of rain, you walked down the length of the shelter. On one side was the raft, and on the other was the luggage, built into a wall. You took out some clean clothes and stepped into the rain. Peeling off your seawater and sweat drenched clothes, you stood in the dark and tried washing your body with a tiny travel soap you had found in a bag.

You scrubbed your body of sweat and turned back to the shelter. Grabbing your towel, and wrapping it around your body, you stepped inside. He was laying on the makeshift bed you had prepared. He looked over, and when he saw you just in a towel, he rolled away. It was embarrassing, you who loved privacy and comfort were showering all exposed in the rain and getting changed in the same vicinity as a stranger. That night, he took the only dry blanket, so you laid there with wet hair and damp skin, shivering.

You were thankful for the sun rising, and it took a few minutes for you to thaw enough to move, but when you did, you deemed it time for him to do some work. The two of you gathered sticks and leaves. He barely helped, and when he got back, he laid back down and fell asleep in the shelter.

Building a fire, with the wood, took some time as it had rained the night before. The leaves helped fuel the flames. The fire didn't have to be amazing, you just needed it for warmth. You also hoped some rescue teams might even see the faint smoke.

At the sound of your stomach calling for sustenance you got up and went to check the rock wall you made and found a fish swimming in the shallow water. You grinned, carrying it back making sure to stoke the fire. You were doing your absolute best with the emergency kit knife.

You must have looked pitiful, as your companion took over, filleting the fish with ease, and he even cooked it. The two of you had fish for breakfast and you felt satiated. You took some of the supplies and got ready to set out for food and fresh water. He was dressed and trying to follow you, so you let him carry some of the empty bottles.

Except he wasn't cut out for endurance, he got winded quickly. It reminded you of the time you passed out during a school marathon. Yet you made the best of the situation that you could, walking slowly until you came across some sort of fruit that the birds were eating.

You took a couple of pieces of rotten fruit and then carefully dug up the small plant and began carrying it back. He followed you back. You placed the plant down. Using your hands you tried to shift the dirt until you had a decent hole where you could plant the little fruit tree. Watering it with some of the water you had collected from the lagoon, internally wishing the plant would flourish. It was hard pouring the fresh water on the plant but you had to if you wanted food.

You mapped out an area and put sticks in the ground in a box-shape, in hopes of starting a garden of any edible plants found throughout the island.

You took the old fruit you collected off the ground, put it around the bottom of the tree, and gave a small hopeful sigh. “Hopefully it will break down in the soil and feed the plant. Our fate is in your hands little plant”

You spent another night sleeping in the makeshift shelter and had to decide on what to do, so you sat up and turned to the young man.

"Hey, are you awake?" He sat up, his eyes narrow, "what do we build? Shelter? or a garden for food?"

He blinked before choosing "Shelter?” you giggled at his confusion, not trying to be rude. He knew more English than you knew Korean and that was definitely a feat.

“A home”

“Home, food later" he shrugged

It rained heavier, bringing with it a sense of sadness. There was no one waiting for you, no one looking for you. The tears began falling and you tried to stifle the sounds. He was still and you hoped he didn’t hear the breakdown. You hoped he was sound asleep as this seemed to be his skill. You were sadly mistaken; he wasn’t asleep. He moved and draped a blanket over you. He only drifted off when you exhausted yourself from crying.

Waking up with your back pressed to his back, the two of you had shared a few airplane blankets. Your body was aching, from sleeping on the ground. It was time to build the shelter both of you had been discussing. You needed someplace safe from the elements and a place with some sort of makeshift bed. Sand felt so soft, but was uncomfortable to sleep on.

Standing in the morning breeze, you began thinking: “How does one even build a house?” If people can make houses with only the land, then so could you. You had no excuse.if it didn’t work, you could try again until you figured it out. You knew there should be some sort of foundation. You could build between two trees, or with a big pillar in the middle, or four walls like a traditional home. Whatever you were going to do, you needed the materials, namely wood, but it’s not like you could just rip a tree out of the ground with your bare hands. You needed tools. Unfortunately, this island didn’t have a hardware store. This wasn’t like minecraft; you couldn’t just create perfect tools from nothing. Or, could you?

You got to work trying to make some sort of mock Stone Age axe. It gave you blisters, but you had successfully chopped a single tree down. Getting the hang of chopping the trees with your primitive tool, you had four trees ready on the seventh day. You dug holes in the sand, but it wasn’t holding the trunks at all. They kept toppling over. He told you it wouldn’t work, and you only huffed in response.

You would have to dig, until you found harder ground. This took another week, but you had four tree trunks in the ground in a modest square. You had started feeling dizzy while working, and your head felt clouded. It had been raining ever since you arrived, every night and lightly throughout the day, you didn’t think you had felt warm in a few days.

While making a wall frame out of trees, you started to feel dizzy again. You tied together the thin logs with multiple vines, and you hoped they would stay. The more you worked, the more your hands got torn up.

You were tying the last of the frame, when you felt your body grow heavy. You were so tired. You thought you would die by the hands of the lazy man. With that, all other thoughts left you as the darkness crept in.

The shelter was warm. There was a fire, and the blankets were wrapped around you, keeping you warm. Beside you was a bottle of water and a packet of painkillers. “Fever,” he sighed, “all work makes you uh… quick death?”

“Well, at least I am doing something. I have kept you alive, in the plane, in the water and now. I have done everything and what have you done other than act arrogant and lazy?” You said, “You haven’t even told me your name. We are stranded on an island. Maybe we will be rescued tomorrow, and it will be all in vain but what if it’s not tomorrow? What if it's months or a year from now?”

“What if never safe?” He argued, not looking at you.

“The point is, I don’t want to die in my twenties. I don’t want to die in general. I had dreams, to get married, have a family and be a loving wife. I was working a stupid office job, and I loved it. I won’t give up that dream. I will live with the hope that one day we will be rescued, and I will keep us alive goddamn it.”

“You don’t need to worry about me.” He gave a dry laugh, “I have no care. I was not… supposed be on the plane.”

“I need you alive. I can’t do this on my own. If-” You took a deep breath, “If you die, I might do something stupid. I can’t live an undetermined number of days on my own”

He went quiet.

“Think about someone else for a change, it’s not all about you, Mister Asshole.”

“Yoongi,” he mumbled

“What?” You asked, too tired to be mad.

“My name is Yoongi.” He left the shelter, and you were left sobbing in the dark.

You woke up to Yoongi cooking fish on the fire; you were not expecting it. He hadn’t really done anything to help you. He mostly sat around, but the two of you ate together before you got to work. It was after a few hours you noticed Yoongi was gone again. It disheartened you that he was off doing whatever again, while you were working. You were completely exasperated by the young man, he maddened you, always on your mind. He was hot and mysterious and you hate that you couldn’t stop thinking about him because he acted nice once.

You began opening the suitcases hoping you wouldn’t offend anyone by going through personal belongings of the deceased. Clothes in all different sizes mens and womens, all different styles and one suitcase broke you, filled with tiny onesies and cloth diapers, dummies and ointments and medicines for a tiny baby. A pretty purple rattle with a cute butterfly on the handle.

You slammed the suitcase shut and pushed it across the sand to look at another day but for now you needed to step aside, the wound was too fresh. These were real people who died and yet why did you two survive, the most unlikely pairing with the worst odds and yet you survived when countless innocent lives were lost. It wasn’t fair.

A few days had passed, and you were trying to create something sturdy enough to withstand wind and rain with a roof and walls. You had plenty of resources, but you had to pick the right ones that would last.

You thought about it and decided to use the raft to line the inside of the house in the tarp-like material. It was super long, so you could do the roof and the four walls and still have the whole underside left over. You would weave leaves and sticks together to make them sturdier and layer them on the outside.

Putting your plan to action seemed easy yet tedious. You collected long palm leaves, removed the spines, and weaved the leaves tightly together, and laid them on the floor. The more you weaved, the faster you got. Painstakingly working every day, you rejoiced when all four walls, roof, and floor were finished and stable.

While you were doing all this, Yoongi was nowhere to be seen. He returned at night, as he always did. He looked unbothered by all the work you had accomplished that day. You finished up, and the two of you ate and went to bed, which was just a collection of woven leaf mats covered in some of the leftover tarp from the raft.

You had moved the items from the shelter into the new house area. The two of you sat on the remaining raft fabric. “I made a bed out of leaf mats and covered it in the leftover material.”

Yoongi seemed impressed looking around, “잘 했어.”

“Jal haess-eo?” you repeated the sounds “What does that mean?”

“Uh… good work” He took your hands and pulled out a small succulent leave from his pocket snapping it and squeezing out the liquid inside. Applying it to the cuts and scratches on your hands gently. You noticed his hands were rough too, for he had cuts and blisters littering the his palms as well.

“Where did you find aloe vera?” you asked curiously. What had he been doing?

“Near the…” he made an action with his hand “폭포”

“The what?” You laughed, and he cracked a slight smile.

“Water shaaaa!” he made the sound and gesture of water falling. You laughed hysterically. He was so cute, when you got to know him.

“Waterfall?” you prompted, checking that was what he had meant.

“Ah waterfall!” he nodded, “Near the waterfall”

“What did you call it?” you said. You were genuinely interested. He had been trying his best to communicate with you in your language, so maybe you could learn some of his to ease the burden “Pog-o”

“폭포” he corrected.

“Pogpo” You smiled at him. he seemed a little happy that you were giving his language a try. “How do you say good night?”

“안녕히 주무세요” he said and you blinked shocked, so he grinned,speaking slower in syllables “Ann-yeong-hi ju-mu-se-yo.”

“Annyeonghi,” you repeated. He seemed eager to teach you more, so you stayed up as long as you could, learning Korean phrases until you both fell asleep.

[Part 2/2] coming soon...

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ohmygoodnessgraciouss · 4 years ago

Text

Reality Check - Chapter 8 Part 2

“We’ll take care of it from here, L/N. You aren’t allowed back in.” Hayward said.

“What do you mean I’m not allowed back in?!” You yelled, frustrated. You spent all day talking to him just for him to tell you that there’s no plan where you go back.

“I can’t risk having you under Maximoff’s magic again. For all we know she’ll use you to destroy us. You’re done here.”

“But I have the best chance of going back in.”

“I don’t care. Woo, escort her out of here. I don’t care where she goes but she can’t stay here any longer.”

Jimmy nodded solemnly, holding out a hand to you. Still angered by Hayward’s words you stood up from your chair abruptly, pushing Jimmy’s hand out of the way. “You don’t get to make that choice for me. I’m going to find out what’s going on inside the hex.”

Hayward glared at you before raising a hand to his earpiece, muttering something you couldn’t hear. He left the room as two guards came in, grabbing you by the elbows. “You can’t do this!” You yelled out to Tyler. “I will find my way back into Westview!”

The guards began leading you down the halls as Darcy, Monica, and Jimmy all watched. They didn’t know what they could do to help you. You watched the hallways carefully, making sure you knew exactly where you needed to go once you broke free from them.

They led you outside, towards one of the trucks. They threw you in before you could do anything, locking you into place with a set of handcuffs. You huffed at them as they moved to the front of the vehicle. One of the men sat behind the wheel, adjusting the mirror. “Where are you taking me?” You asked them.

Their answer sent shivers down your spine.

“To a place you won’t be able to come back from.”

The drive was long, about two hours if you counted the seconds correctly. The place they were talking about looked like a prison. The walls were easily forty feet high, glaring down at you as if you were merely an ant. The men dragged you into the building, leading you down yet another hallway. You half expected a light to flicker on the way.

The end of the hallway had a large desk with a woman sitting behind it. She glared up at you from her seat, pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose. “Is this the mutant you were telling me about?” She asked, almost disgustedly.

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Bring her in, take her to the confinement room,” She sighed and handed one of the guards a key.

“The what room? Do you people even work for S.H.I.E.L.D?” You turned to look at them, seeing their empty expressions. They nudged you, forcing you to walk down a new hallway.

“We work for S.H.I.E.L.D, but we work for another agency as well.”

“Another agency? Dare I call you H.Y.D.R.A agents?” You tried to keep your brave face on, but it was hard knowing that you were being taken somewhere you didn’t know by people you didn’t know.

“A group even more powerful than H.Y.D.R.A ever was. We handle mutants like yourself more specifically. Haven’t you noticed that you’re completely drained of your power right now? The cuffs are made to fit you perfectly, drain you of any energy you may have.” Your eyes widened in fear.

“So what’s the point in having me?”

“Right now? We’re just here to make sure you don’t mess up the timeline.”

“How would I mess up the timeline? The Avengers worked with time travel weeks ago and now you’re saying we could still be altering timelines?”

“Precisely. In fact, you could be altering it even more than you ever realized. With your powers, if you were to come into contact and team up with the Scarlet Witch again, you could corrupt the entire multiverse.”

“Multiverse? The Scarlet Witch? I don’t even know what you’re talking about right now!” You exclaimed.

“It’s for the best you don’t then. Don’t worry. We’ll only keep you here until The Scarlet Witch is revealed. It shouldn’t take too long. We’ll see you soon, L/N.” They pulled off your handcuffs and shoved you into a room. Before you could race out of it, they locked the door.

The room seemed to be made out of a metal. It was all just metal, cold, and eerie. A bed was in one corner, a desk with very few books, and a toilet and sink were on one side. The other side had a chest, you assumed it was probably filled with blankets or pillows. Whatever the room was made of, it had to have been made out of the same metal as the cuffs. You still felt drained by it.

“What do I do now?”

A week had passed and you found yourself sitting by the desk, reading a book. You felt like you were going insane there. A man would bring you food twice a day, giving you a small smile each time he did. You merely glared at the man and waited until he was gone before you would eat. It was always something a small. A sandwich, an apple, maybe a bottle of water. It was always on paper plates and paper napkins, ensuring you wouldn’t have anything sharp or heavy.

“Good news,” The man greeted you one day. You watched him with a careful eye. “The timeline is almost restored, meaning you’ll be free soon enough. It should only be another day or two. I enjoyed our time together, even if you don’t. Many of the people who show up here are less than pleased and they would insult me quite a bit. I would prefer a nice conversation, after all I am just the messenger, but I’ll take what I can get.” He placed the plate down. A granola bar and a ham and cheese sandwich. Predictable.

“Hopefully tomorrow is the last day we’ll see each other. I look forward to it,” He smiled once more before leaving.

You looked down at the plate, picking at the granola bar. What were you to do now?

The next morning you woke up, waiting for the man to appear once again. He was a friendly face at least. Given you hadn’t seen anyone else all week you were almost kind of glad to see somebody each day. You were positive you would start hallucinating at this rate.

The door opened for the first time today, but it wasn’t the man you were waiting for. It was a different man. One you hadn’t seen in a week. His mischievous grin was as wide as ever, his black hair was pulled back behind his ears. He wore a Gucci suit. Of course he did.

“Did you miss me, darling?” He asked, raising his arms up as if he expected you to run to him.

You looked at him with wide eyes. “How are you here?” You asked him.

“What do you mean? I know I’m dead in this timeline but surely you knew it was me inside the Scarlet Witch’s reality,” He chuckled.

You stood up, walking to him slowly, scanning his face for any kind of flaw. Any indication that someone was pretending to be him. “The Scarlet Witch’s reality? Don’t you mean Wanda’s?”

“Wanda, Scarlet Witch, same person, just different names. Now, I’m a little disappointed to hear that you couldn’t see through my illusion, but I can’t say that I’m surprised. You were never one for noticing it after all.”

“You were in there all along?” You asked breathlessly.

“Of course I was! Scott was never a man who lived in Westview. He was merely someone I made up so I could be close to you. I needed to help set the timeline straight. The T.V.A would have had my head if I couldn’t do it.”

“Who’s the T.V.A?”

“The Time Variance Authority. They’re the ones who locked you up here, despite my arguably great reasons why they shouldn’t,” He spoke bitterly. “But, I had to help them with this timeline. I’m from a different timeline. One where Thanos hasn’t snapped away half of the universe. I escaped using the Tesseract.”

A lightbulb seemed to flicker on in your head. Of course it was him! Bruce told you about what had gone wrong during the “Time heist.” He mentioned how Loki managed to escape in 2012. “You’re working for them?”

“Not anymore,” He winked. “I extracted some of the Scarlet Witch’s magic before she took off with the Darkhold.”

“Wanda has the Darkhold?!” You almost screeched. Through your readings on Asgard you learned of the dark magic the Darkhold possessed. It was known for corrupting people’s minds when read. Considering your friend was already unstable enough to create a false reality you were terrified by what she could do if she had the book.

“Shh!” He hushed you quickly. “There are still people in the building. But yes, she does. Don’t worry, I’ve seen the rest of this timeline. She’ll be alright with help from the Sorcerer Supreme. But you hold no important place in this timeline anymore.”

“What do you mean by that?” You asked.

He walked up to you, close enough to place a hand on your waist comfortingly. “Y/N,” It brought tears to your eyes to hear him say your name once more. “I want you to come with me.”

“Where would we go?”

“Anywhere. We can go anywhere you’d like. This timeline, another, somewhere on Midgard or somewhere far away from it. But I’m asking you to run away with me. I know you may be frightened by the idea, especially because I’m not the same Loki you used to know, but I don’t want to live without you. This is our chance to finally have a life together. Free from Odin, from Thanos, from everyone! We could finally be together.”

You searched his eyes for any lies. It wouldn’t be the first time he betrayed someone he loved, but you couldn’t find an ounce of betrayal in him. He was being completely honest with you. You smiled slightly, tears brimming your eyes. “Loki, I have friends here. Family. Knowing that Wanda is out there with the Darkhold is terrifying me.”

“And you can see her again, I promise you. But for now we must leave. You won’t see her for quite a while, but,” He hesitated for a moment, debating whether or not he should tell you the next piece of information. “But you will see her again. She’s going to use the Darkhold to cross the multiverse. We can safely see her again, but right now we have to go.”

The two of you looked out of the room quickly as you heard yells coming down the hallway. The T.V.A was close now. They were planning on arresting both you and Loki. “What do you say, Y/N?” His eyes were pleading, begging you to go with him.

You took a deep breath, wiping your eyes, before grabbing onto his hand. The other hand, that was still on your waist, tightened his hold slightly. You smiled up at him. “Let’s go,” You whispered.

He returned the smile, before saying one last thing to you.

“Oh, how I love you.”

Yeah, no, I’m with Wanda on this one. We’re not ending it like that. Reality Check is far from over. Happy April Fool’s, everyone.

Part 2 will be out tomorrow.

@emberfulclass @momoneymolife @high-priestesss @hailey-the-heathen @mochminnie @dpaccione @intricate-melody @lindseyrae20 @storminateacup15 @ilovemollyweasley @bookgirlunicorn @chims-kookies @austynparksandpizza @yikesdameron @littleladdty @three-eyed-snail @kymera-casterwill @justsomerandompersonintheworld @followthepastelcloud @11mb0 @carolinesbookworld @from-hel-i-with-love @grimalkynslee @boywivlove @prettysbliss @youreobsessedwithmarvel @th3gl1tt3gram3roff1c1al @luthien-t @lokilove3000 @treblebeth @weclassygirl @justfangirlingaround @drpepperobsessed @how-does-this-work @prideofnewberk @matterdontminduntildone @brynthebulldozer @shittyfuckinweeb

#loki x reader #loki laufeyson #odinson #fanfic #fanfiction #romance #action #adventure #thor #wandavision #maximoff #wanda #vision #wandavision spoilers

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writeyouin · 4 years ago

Note

oho Bet. Guy from The Croods x Gender Neutral Reader where they were childhood friends/neighbors and they meet again at the "new world". (instead of Guy and Eek falling for each other they become friends) Sorry if it's weird to read, it's 3:30 am.

Guy Crood X Reader – The New World

A/N – Writing this fic was the only way I ever found out that there’s a Croods sequel in the works.

Warnings – None.

Rating – T

You hid in the bushes, cautiously watching the family before you as they violently tore hunks of meat of a huge bird. The speed and ferocity with which they ate was sickening, not to mention the gristle and fat that dripped grotesquely down their fronts. You had thought that you would be safe in the New World, never suspecting that cavemen would also find the way to it, unevolved as they were. Only one of the females looked anything closer to the evolution that had taken place in your tribe generations ago, but you doubted her intelligence was any better than theirs.

You wondered whether you ought to kill them; you had tried to communicate with cavemen in the past and it never ended well. Then again, it might not even be possible to take on all six of them. You were sure that you could kill the Alpha male with your speed against his strength. The other male would probably die of a self-inflicted injury in the heat of combat; he certainly looked dim enough. The alpha’s mate would hopefully be preoccupied with the fate of her son. It was the last three that worried you. The elder might look frail but she had to be tough to have survived so long. The young girl was clearly fast and strong, a combination of her parent’s best traits. That left the worst one of all; the baby. You had seen her bite the head clean off a lizard only seconds ago; she was clearly the most dangerous member of the pack.

Regretfully, you decided to abandon any thought of fighting, as well as that area of the New World. Perhaps you could make your home elsewhere, with the hopes that the cavemen wouldn’t find you.

“Ugh, that was delicious,” The alpha-male belched.

You slung your bow over your shoulder, tiptoeing quietly away, only stopping when you heard the girl speak. “Hey… where’s the leg I saved for Guy?”

‘Guy!’ Your breath hitched in your throat as you remembered your childhood friend. It couldn’t be him, could it? Was Guy a common name nowadays? The Guy you knew was as afraid of cavemen as you were. He wouldn’t travel with them, right?

On the slim chance that it was your Guy that the cavemen knew, you decided to stay and wait for him to come back to the pack. Coating yourself in mud to camouflage yourself and hide your scent, you hunkered down, clutching your bow tightly in case a fight should occur.

You continued observing the family, bemused when a fight broke out over who had eaten the last bird leg. You soon learnt that their names were Grug, Ugga, Eep, Sandy, Thunk and Gran, and together they were the Croods. Should a confrontation arise, their names might come in useful to diffuse the situation.

As the night drifted on and the Croods occupied themselves with stories for Sandy, you thought back, losing yourself in memories of when you and Guy were children.

“Help.” A sniffly voice on the verge of crying called from the bottom of a steep slope.

You poked your head over the edge, finding the new boy, whose family had just moved into the cave next door to yours.

“Hey,” Guy said upon seeing you. “Please, help me.”

You giggled upon seeing him fail to scale the shale wall, trying to reach you.

“You’re not supposed to play there, new boy,” You grinned.

“Okay, I won’t ever again. Now, get me out of here.”

“What’s your name?”

Guy stared up at you exasperatedly, “Come on, get me out.”

“I will, if you tell me your name.”

“It’s Guy.”

“Hi Guy, I’m (Y/N).”

“That’s not a name.”

“Neither is Guy,” You pouted.

“Yes it is, and you promised to help me if I told you, so there.”

“Uh huh,” You replied non-committedly, looking around for anything that might aid Guy. You lowered a long, withered stick down into the pit for him to grab hold of. Gratefully, he began climbing it, trying his best to be quick.

“You’re heavy,” You whined. “Hurry up before I drop you.”

Guy did his best to speed up, but with no footholds in the shale, he had only his arms to work with.

“How old are you?” You grunted through gritted teeth.

“Seven,” Guy groaned.

“No way. I’m seven and I’m not nearly as heavy as you are. You must be…” You paused, trying to think of the highest number you knew, “Twelve.”

“I’m not twelve! I’m seven, like you,” Guy insisted, finally reaching the top and dragging himself out.

You let him catch his breath before asking, “Now what?”

“I’ve gotta go home or my parents will worry. Are you coming?”

“I guess.”

With that, the two of you walked back to your adjacent caves within the tribe, talking the entire way back. Afterwards, the two of you became fast friends. Growing up together, Guy always shared his best ideas with you; his family seemed to be full of great thinkers. In return, you taught him the tribe’s way of hunting, camouflage, and how to mentally map out the terrain. You asked him once why he hadn’t learnt such important things from his old tribe, only to find out that he and his parents had been loners living in the wilderness until they came across your tribe.

In your early teenage years, Guy invented puppet shows, explaining the concept to you so the two of you could tell a story at the nightly gathering.

You giggled as you made a tiny old woman puppet on your hand bow. “The tribe will love this.”

“Yeah… The tribe will,” Guy said, thinking of how he had invented the puppets as a way to get closer to you than he normally would.

That night was one of merriment and wonder for the entire tribe. While you kept peeking around the boulder that acted as a stage to enjoy the audience’s reactions, Guy was watching you, preparing to ask you out before some other, braver tribesman did. After the show, when everyone was preparing to sleep, Guy finally plucked up the courage to ask you out, an action that led to what was simultaneously the best and worst night of your lives.

“You what?” You asked, trying to make sense of the rushed invitation Guy asked moments prior.

“Sometime, I mean, anytime you’re free, I was wondering if you uh, might want to go out with me,” Guy said slowly.

A grin spread across your face, “We could go now.”

“Now?! But it’s night time. There’s- There’s no light.”

“We’ll take torches.”

Uncertain about going, yet unwilling to lose his chance with you, Guy borrowed two torches from the communal fire pit. The two of you walked far beyond the edge of the tribe, into the wilderness where you could be alone together.

When the two of you reached the cliff, the two of you sat with your legs hanging over the edge. In a comfortable silence, bathed in moonlight you gazed up at the stars. Guy kept his eyes on you, smiling boyishly.

“(Y/N),” Guy murmured, drawing your gaze to his face.

Instead of speaking, he leaned forwards. You mirrored his action, relishing the way your foreheads touched, then your noses. Everything felt so intimate under the moon’s watchful gaze. Any second now and your lips would meet his, or at least they would have, had the ground not started shaking. The two of you jumped up, backing away from the edge of the cliff.

“What’s going on?” You gasped.

“I don’t know. I-” Guy was interrupted by the distant screams that echoed through the previously peaceful night air.

“THE TRIBE!” You cried out.

You broke into a run with Guy close behind you, each of you struggling to keep your balance on the unstable ground. Trees began uprooting themselves as large fissures opened in the earth below.

You were nearing the screaming tribe when Guy roared, “(Y/N), LOOK OUT!”

He had warned you just in time for you to leap out of the way of a newly formed chasm that swallowed the earth where you were standing only moments before. Guy morosely called your name, painfully aware that the two of you were now separated.

“Don’t worry about me,” You called back. “Get back home, I’ll find another way to get there, I promise.”

Guy nodded assent and ran towards the tribe just in time to watch his family slowly die in tar and hear their last goodbyes. You, on the other hand, never got to keep your promise. The new terrain provided no way back to the only home you had ever known, and eventually you were forced to flee as fire, lava, and tar pursued you.

In the years of isolation that followed, whilst searching for a place safe from The End, you often thought of Guy, hoping that he had survived that terrible night. Now, you had been provided a chance to see if it was your Guy travelling with these Croods. You desperately hoped it was him, so you could finally know that your friend was safe, and maybe even put an end to the solitary life that fate had forced upon you.

The rancid smell of bog water intermingled with wet fur drew you out of your reverie. Suddenly on edge about a possible animal attack, you squatted into a fighting stance and readied your bow. A large carnivorous cat pounced through the surrounding foliage, launching itself at Grug. You prepared yourself to watch a bloody massacre that would lead to the Croods’ demise, but instead found yourself watching the creature affectionately groom Grug, purring the entire time.

Soon enough, more animals followed, one for each Crood so it seemed. You scowled, thinking that perhaps Guy was the name of Eep’s pet, but your expression quickly transformed into one of radiant joy as a man followed the animals. He was older, his hair longer, and there was some kind of odd creature hugging his waist, but there was no mistaking it; that was your Guy.

“Next time, it’s Thunk’s turn to walk the pets,” Guy said bemusedly. “There’s just no keeping them out of that stagnant water.”

Shouldering your bow, you wasted no time in getting up. You were still afraid of the cavemen, but if worst came to worst, you could always grab Guy and run.

“Uh hi, room for one more?” You asked awkwardly.

You immediately began to regret your choice not to get Guy alone as you were grabbed by several pairs of hands.

“WHO ARE YOU?” Eep demanded, pulling you in one direction.

“EEP, I’LL ASK THE QUESTIONS,” Grug reminded her, pulling you in the opposite direction. “WHO ARE YOU?”

“Can we all ask?” Thunk grinned. “Who are you?”

“Sweetie, this isn’t a game,” Ugga warned Thunk. “Hold onto Sandy before she eats the intruder.”

“I SAY WE RELEASE THE BABY,” Gran cackled wickedly.

Throughout the interaction, Guy had been entirely too shocked to say anything, but he finally stepped in, pushing himself between you and the Croods.

“Everyone, wait. This is (Y/N), the two of us grew up together. We- We know each-other.”

Reluctantly, Grug let you go, but Eep’s grip only tightened and you were faced with a barrage of ecstatic questions. “You knew Guy? What was it like growing up? Do you have ideas too? Do you make fire? How well do you know him? What’s the curvy string stick on your back for? Do you have a pet too? Were you being chased by The End? How did you find your way here? What do you-”

“Eep,” Ugga said quietly. “I think that Guy may want some time to catch up with his old friend.”

Eep fell silent, looking up at Guy, finding an expression of sadness and awe written on his face. “Oh, right, yeah. We’ll just leave you too it. Uh… C’mon Croods, let’s go for another pet walk.”

All of the group left except Gran who took a seat, waiting for the show to start. Grug quickly came back and put her over his shoulder; she grumbled cantankerously as he carried her away.

“So…” You said awkwardly, unaccustomed to talking to others after so long alone.

“So…” Guy parroted, having been caught completely off-guard.

“Cavemen?”

“Yeah,” Guy laughed nervously. “But they’re good ones.”

“And…our tribe?” You asked, hoping that Guy wasn’t the only one who had made it out.

He shook his head, “Gone. We’re all that’s left.”

“Oh…”

“(Y/N), I never stopped looking for you. I always hoped… I mean- and now you’re here and I don’t know what to say.”

“I know what you mean. I kept hoping if I travelled far enough, I would find you and now I have. So much has changed, where do we even begin?”

“Well… I suppose we could begin where we left off,” Guy said thoughtfully. “We tell each other everything that’s happened, no matter how long it takes and we learn who we’ve both become.”

Guy sat down on a log, offering you the space next to him. You sat down tentatively,

“Okay,” You said quietly. “That sounds good. You go first. Tell me your story Guy.”

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#Guy Crood #Guy Crood X Reader #the croods #dreamworks #grug #uga #thunk #eep #gran #sandy #fanfiction #fanfic #reader #reader insert #the new world #Anonymous

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whitewoodbosca · 3 years ago

Text

it's the most wonderful time of the year [1]

With Elis, Christmas was nothing more than an opportunity to make money - it didn't change even when she went to Hogwarts. After two days of having the castle to herself (and a few students who also stayed back), she was visited by none other than Ash White, who decided that she should come to her house on Christmas.

pairing: ash white (hphm mc)/penny haywood/chiara lobosca, minor elis pames (hpma mc)/cassandra vole/ivy warrington in later chapter

note: yes i'm writing christmas fic in march. also hello people apparently i haven't died yet. this is set in the first year of hpma

The cold was merciless.

“I thought you wizards can teleport or something.” The annoyance in Elis’ voice was muffled by the scarf Ash lent her. She was used to walking more than just a few miles back in the days, but she would never be able to withstand this frozen weather, not when she was still dressed in two thin layers of uniform. In front of her, Ash White did something that vaguely resembled a half-hearted shrug.

“I can Apparate, but that means leaving you behind. The Floo Network at this time of the year is… unstable.” The witch grimaced, before pointing at a house at the end of the road. “That’s our destination, so move your legs quicker.”

Eventually, they reached the porch, dusting snow out of their clothes. As Ash knocked on the door, Elis took her time admiring the neighborhood. It was not too far from the center of London, but the quietness seemed out of place, especially during Christmas.

"Oh, you are back." A woman in her late twenties opened the door for them. Her blonde hair was tied into a neat ponytail, though a few strands managed to escape, brushing against the side of her face and nape. She was beautiful, unbelievably so, especially with the way those blue eyes sparkling full of warmth, compared to Ash who looked more of a grizzly bear wearing a clown mask.

"With our guest." White smiled cheerfully, purposely pushing Elis forwards with one hand behind her back. "Jun isn't home, is she?"

"She said she was going to visit some friends." The woman shrugged, head cocked to one side as she observed her carefully, as if Elis was a stray kitten showing up in front of her house, which was, technically, not wrong. "Now come in, I don't want any of you to catch a cold."

No way Ash lives in this place. That was the first thing popping up in her head the moment she stepped inside - deep yellow walls with flowers patterns, bright wooden furniture, not to mention extremely tidy. The holy smell of fresh baking goods (from the kitchen, she presumed) only made Pames feel like she was home, despite knowing that her actual home was thousands of miles from here.

"Chiara is napping upstairs." The woman led them into the living room, where they could have a nice view of the garden through the large windows. "Apparently there was a tough case yesterday. So whatever you try to do, keep it down, alright?"

"You know I would never disturb our lovely Healer's beauty sleep, right Penny?" Ash replied with a cheeky grin, pulling the woman into a quick kiss, before nodding towards what Elis would guess the kitchen. "Not after she baked those delicious chocolate chip cookies."

"You should thank her later. I told her to rest early, but she insisted on making some since you were coming." Penny gave White a slight nudge to her ribcage as they settled down on the sofa. Actually, it was two of them sitting on the sofa and Elis taking the armchair, not wanting to get in the middle of whatever sappy romance in front of her eyes. She tried to distract herself by focusing on the surroundings. There was a flat-screen TV opposite them, one of the most modern types, and the girl wondered whether it was a way to make the house less suspicious among Muggles. Most of the families she worked for all had a TV, and if she was lucky enough, their children would let her catch a glimpse of those kid-friendly programs or movies with the worst visual effects she had ever seen. A bookshelf was mounted next to it, but the titles were all too small to read. I doubt they would put magical books up there.

"Let me go get some tea and cookies." Her head swirled back to Penny and Ash. "Can you drink green tea, honey?"

Elis could feel her face heat up at the word. It was so obvious that she was not immune to beautiful women referring to her like that.

"Green tea or matcha? People nowadays always mix the two of them up." She pointed out, mentally praying it was the former. The bitterness of it would clear her head up for sure.

"Vietnamese green tea, kid." Ash replied, a smug smirk spreading on her lips. "By the delightful look on your face, I feel like I should have answered matcha."

"No bullying in the house, White." Penny flicked one finger against her temple, before turning to Pames and giving her a reassuring smile. "Make yourself comfortable, I'll be back soon."

As the blonde woman made her way down the hall, Elis turned to Ash, puzzled and confused.

"You have a wife? I thought she was married to Mrs. Lobosca."

"I don't." She shrugged, leaning back on the sofa as she stretched her arms over her head. "Chiara and Penny got married while I was still busy traveling all over Europe." White explained, her fingers drumming on the arm of the sofa. "I am more of the person who sometimes drops in with food and drinks."

"Sure." Elis thinned her lips, her eyes squinting at the older woman. There were more to the stories, she could feel it, but the last thing she needed was to have another person mad at her for prying at their secrets.

"You said that, but curiosity is showing all over your face." Again, Pames wished Ash could be less observant. White made her feel like the emotionless act she had spent years to perfect was a child's game. "I've made enemies, so putting my name next to them is like giving those bad guys a big, red arrow on where to hurt me most."

"Sounds like it is more about your self-destructing nature." That brought a smile to her face, rather satisfied with Elis' deduction.

"Oh, do elaborate, Miss."

Two can play this game. She took a deep breath, racking her brain for clues. Ten years ago, Ash was in Europe messing things up, and at the same time, Voldemort had his army terrorizing people, which eventually led to the Battle of Hogwarts. An entry in the History book she borrowed from Daniel said that there was a massacre of Voldemort’s subordinates before it, caused by an unknown, powerful being. “It is said that the Ministry of Wizards is still seeking that person nowadays.”

“You made enemies with the Dark Wizards.” Elis clenched her teeth, feeling her hand tremble at the idea. “They are still on your ass for the massacre in early 1998.” She muttered those words in disbelief, gaping at Ash. The 36-wand incident, that was what people called it, because the day after the Battle of Hogwarts ended, someone dumped a bag of 36 wands in front of the Ministry of Magic, all belonging to The Dark Lord’s underlings. Pames used to think people often exaggerate White’s ability, but to do such things… Her body involuntarily shuddered.

“The girl is smart,” Penny emerged into the room, a teapot and some cookies in her hands. The smell of green tea calmed Pames down, though her heart was still beating like a drum, “and she is a first year?”

“Kids nowadays grow faster than us.” Ash took the tray from the woman and put it on the coffee table. She handed Elis a half full mug, ignoring the way her fingers were shaking as they wrapped around it. “Back in first year, I was busy swooning over you and Chiara.”

So apparently her Prefect had three mothers, one was the greatest Healer in England, one was the Wizard World’s golden girl, and one was an Unspeakable who could obliterate an army on her own.

What was she even doing here in their house?

“But I can’t spoil too much.” Ash took a sip of her tea, and Elis mirrored her action, savoring the light bitterness as hot water ran down her stomach. “Gotta wait for Jun to come back, so I can tell the story of that one time she almost blew up the house while trying to find her textbook.”

The idea of Jun Haywood-Lobosca, the grumpiest person in the history of Hogwarts, the Prefect who could talk about rules and manners for days, scrambling on the floor and probably crying certainly made Pames’ eyebrows raise in fascination.

“Well, color me interested, then. Finally have something to add to the tales of Demonic Ravenclaw Prefect.” She laughed, watching the snow falling outside the window. Maybe this Christmas wouldn't be too bad.

#hphm #hpma #this is rather random fr #i was on the bed last night about to sleep then 10 mins later i was writing until 1am #ash white #penny haywood #elis pames #my fic

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thestorybrookeclocktower · 4 years ago

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I’ve been abused. This is the first time I admit it to myself.

I’ve been abused several times, psychologically, mostly, but also phisically and sexually. It’s hard to admit it. It’s been harder to realize it.

I was an abused child. Before I dig into it, I’d like to point out that I’m managing to do this only thanks to She-Ra, to Catra, in particular, to Adora, and to this video: https://youtu.be/arsKPegw1Tg . So thank you, Noelle Stevenson, and thank you, whoever made that video.

I’m frightened, right now. I’m scared as fuck. I think I don’t know myself, I think I never did. But I must go on, I must find out who I really am. I owe it to myself. I’ve been hiding for too long.

I was an abused child, and I have to write it down because my mind keeps escaping that. It’s hard to stay focused, and that never happens to me, I’m a writer, when I write I’m concentrated, focused, but now... now it seems like my brain’s floating away. And I can’t let it do it.

My parents divorced when I was two or three years old, I’m not sure about it. I clearly remember the day my father went away, the door slamming, my mom crying and myself trying to reassure her, telling her I was there, she had notHing to worry about. I was always way older than my age.

After that, I guess (my memories are a bit confused in the timeline), my grandmother (so I was told) convinced my father to build a wall during the night in the middle of our house to split it in two. I remember waking up and finding this rough, grey wall. My mom lied and told me there had been a earthquake and that the wall fell down. I didn’t know how a collapsed wall would look like, and believed her. My father left us without a kitchen. As I said, I was two or three years old. Thinking about it now, it hurts me to think of how hard it must have been for my mother to face all of this. My father used to beat her, when they were together. She told me that he broke her cranium, once. I cant remember it, I don’t even know if I ever witnessed when it happened. But still.

Later, my mother fell in love with the man who became my step-father. He was our neighbor, they worked together so they already knew each other.

My father disappeared for two years. I spent one year living with my grandparents in another city, because my mother worked and wasn’t home for days, so che couldn’t leave me alone all that time. I remember missing her, and nothing more.

Then, I remember growing up with my mother’s partner trying to be a father. He couldn’t. He was mean to me. His idea of education was based on yells and threats. He continuously told me that I wasn’t his daughter, that I was nothing, that I was worth nothing.

I also remember that I wanted to be hurt. I wanted to hurt myself and, in my fantasies, when I played alone in my room or in the garden, I imagined my “enemies” kidnapping me and me sacrificing to save my friends. That thing lasted. I would always want to sacrifice to save someone I cared about, but who didn’t care about me as much as I did. I still have to understand why. I just need some time, I guess. After all, I just found out I have wounds.

We moved. My father came back, at some point. He started sending the police at our new home, accusing my mother of child abuse, I guess, and trying to claim me as if I was some kind of property. I guess I started feeling like an object when I spent my weekends and summer or winter vacations with him. He had the right to spend time with me, I didn’t have the right to choose. I don’t think he never treated me bad, he was simply unable to be a good father. He just left me with his friends’ children to play. I had fun with them, anyway. I always insisted to be the victim in our playtime, though. Something bad would always happen to my character. I often played the villain (they were happy with it, none ever wanted to be the villain but me), but my villain always had a reason, a past, a complicated story that led them to the dark side.

I guess I was never really happy. There was always this shadow, this weight on my soul. I still can’t name it. I only know it’s there, but it’s lighter today. Maybe because I see it for the first time.

When I went to middle school, I was depressed. I kept saying “we’ll die anyway, what changes if I do or I don’t do this?”. I also developed a passion for swords and daggers. I always read a lot, especially fantasy books, so I guess it was just natural that I started loving blade weapons.

I also felt guilty for continuously feeling sad. I thought I didn’t really have a reason. My family had money, I went to holiday four times per year instead than just twice, everything I asked they would just buy it to me. But my stepfather would always rub it in. He made me feel like I owed him everything I had, because he was the one who paid the bills. He is an alcoholic. He freaks out every time he gets drunk, and he starts drinking at ten a.m.. He would walk naked at home. I was way too young to see a naked man when it happened the first time. He also spied on me when I was in my room, so I was always anxious that he was watching me and could never relax.

I wasn’t good at school, I only liked mathematics but was terrible at all the rest. I just couldn’t concentrate, and now I know that I had locked myself in my fantasies, in another world, where I was strong, powerful, where I was happy. No, no, sorry. I’m lying to myself again. It didn’t go this way, actually. I locked myself in another world, it’s true, but that world was horrible. I was becoming a teenager and I started watching Buffy, so I was pretty obsessed by vampires at the time, and also I was starting to realize what sexual desire is. The thing is, in my fantasy I was powerful, yes, I was strong, but I was always defeated. I would get captured by this beautiful vampire woman who would torture me to death and then turn me into something different, with magic. I would become her sexual slave. I fell in love with her, in my mind, and I would submit to her. It’s embarrassing to admit it, yeah, it sucks, it’s rape, torture and Stockholm syndrome. But that’s the truth. As I said, I wanted to be hurt.

Also, despite this I never admitted to myself I liked girls. I didn’t even consider it as a possibility, I told myself I was in love with Angel (surprise, with the bad guy trying to redeem himself! Who would have thought that?).

At the same time, my mom got a bad self-immune disease and lost her job. Also, in the same years, one of the teacher at school started targeting me. I was shy and insecure and she would take advantage of it and humiliate me in front of everyone. She seriously damaged me, my self-confidence (as if I had any), and my stepfather made it only worse. I got bad grades from her (even when I was prepared I was so anxious that I couldn’t speak when she questioned me) and he got angry and yelled at me that I was stupid, that I was unable to do anything, that I was an imbecile and that I was worth nothing. Once he threw a school book at me and broke my lip.

My mother tried to comfort me, but I always hid what I was feeling. I was really, really depressed. So much that one day I grabbed one of my collectible daggers and aimed it at my stomach, and I pushed. I wanted to die. I wanted it to end. And I wanted a slow, painful death.

But I stopped. I didn’t even get a scratch, not because I changed my mind, not because I couldn’t find the “bravery” to kill myself, but because I didn’t want to hurt my mom. I knew she would be devastated if I died, and that is the only reason why I didn’t push harder. She still doesn’t know about all of this.

I guess I made myself a promise, that day: I’d be stronger. And it was a mistake, because I locked the doors of my heart doing so.

Years passed by. I learned Kung-Fu, I made some friends, just a few, lost others, this is not the point. They didn’t abuse me.

I started dating guys. Older boys, usually, and I convinced myself I was in love with them. One touched me without asking my permission, and I didn’t stop him. I was so stupid... gah. I wanted people to like me so much that I pretended to be like them. I told them I liked music I didn’t like, stuff like that. Silly, silly young me. I was lost and I didn’t know it.

Other years, more boys. I’m pretty, and I know it, and I used it to flirt with basically any guy I found. Shame on me, I know. I only kissed them. After all, I wasn’t even attracted by them. I liked girls, even if I didn’t want to accept it. I was already different, I didn’t want to be even more isolated.

I also spent a lot of time online chatting and gaming. I used to play to this online role play game by chat, I had found the perfect, fake, fantasy world there. My first character was an elf with positive alignment. I stopped playing her because she bored me. My second character was a sociopathic girl, a sadistic villain. I still have that character, even though I don’t play her anymore. I made her torture and try to kill innocent people several times. She was my dark side. I used her to take out my darkest instincts. I’m ashamed of who I was, now. I became a bully for a couple of years, a dangerous person, a mean person. I hate myself for that.

I was in high school and I was a little more equilibrated when this guy I knew since first grade asked me out. I knew he liked me since then, so I thought I had power on him (because that’s why I flirted with guys, I liked the power I had on them). He took me on his minicar and we found ourself in an isolated parking lot. He was never a healthy person. He was unstable since he was a kid, but he had always been kind with me. He was kind and pleasing even that night. And manipulative. And abusive. He used my ever-present sense of guilt, he told me I had to because he took me in his car and drove for me and waited all of those years, and he insisted for maybe half an hour until I gave in (I couldn’t leave the car, we were in a dangerous block and far from home). I had my first and only oral sex experience with a boy. It disgusted me so I stopped after like three seconds, but he forced me to masturbate him, he phisically did pushing my hand on his d*ck. When he came, he also said I wasn’t good at it. He then offered to give back the favour, I refused and asked him to take me home. Two day later I texted him saying it was over. God, this was hard to write. My heart is pumping in my chest. I need some water.

By the way, I was eighteen then and I still hadn’t had sex yet, and I was the only one in my class and between my friends in general. About them, I lost them all along the way. They simply let me down, not repaying everything I did or gave to them in terms of affection, or treating me like shit when I came out, or just disappearing slowly. I have trust issues for this, it’s hard for me to open up to someone now, but I’m trying.

I found this boy at a party, at that point I felt nothing, I was just curious about sex. We started dating. I didn’t like him, I approached him just because I thought his ass looked good. Yeah, how romantic of me. But, as I said, I felt nothing. I didn’t care about him. He fell in love with me, even though I told him many rimes I didn’t love him. I felt nothing for him, or with him, even in bed. Sex was a delusion to me, and I treated him like shit. But still, he would stay. Poor guy.

During those years (yes, we spent four years together somehow), I finally realized I liked girls. Fate brought me to a convention, where I met the love of my life. I ended the relationship with the boy and started my new life with her.

She changed me, a lot. I was a mess when we met. I was rough, selfish, the bad girl I always wanted to be, unable to love, to have a healthy relationship, unable to find the strenght to be vulnerable. She was patient with that broken, confused me, and I’ll never thank her enough for this. I don’t deserve her. She always supports me and shows me how much she loves me everyday. I’m so grateful for her.

I learned to be humble, I learned to be vulnerable, selfless, a decent humang being. I learned to love. I learned to protect her, not (only) myself. I dismantled almost all of my walls. I don’t know if this one I’m tearing down right now is the last one. I do hope so. I’m so tired of those cold walls. Today, I don’t want all these swords and daggers. I don’t need them anymore.

I wish I was strong as Catra and Adora, strong enough to face myself and let myself be happy. Thank you, Noelle, really. I always believed in the power of stories, but I never thought an animated show could give me so much, that I could relate so much to someone (let alone the importance of their relationship on screen for the LGBTQ+ community, it’s a true revolution). I was attracted to Catra since the beginning, I completely fell in love with her during the fifth season, and now I understand the reasons behind it. I just feel her, deeply. And I also deeply admire Adora, her pure soul, her strenght, her bright heart.

Sorry for the long post, sorry if there are any mistakes, English is not my first language. Thank you again.

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shypotato-translations · 4 years ago

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QTVW Chapter 25

Showbiz* Sexy Queen (XII)

----

After Mei Mu Lan was thrown out of the room by Ling Yi Yao, she turned around and looked at the closed door with a dark look in her eyes and said,

“Then I'll come back tomorrow and we'll go to the set together. Ling Yi Yao, good night.”

With that, she turned around and walked towards her villa.

She came home and made some food for herself. After she had eaten, she was about to take a shower when she received a phone call from the old Mei family home, from the family's butler.

The butler first exchanged pleasantries with her and chatted for a while about the recent daily routine, then said that the weather was turning warm and that it was easy to catch a cold and fever at the turn of the year, so she should take care of her health.

When Mei Mu Lan heard this, her heart warmed and she replied to him, saying,

“Butler Mei, you too, although you are still suave and elegant, but for the sake of your health, you should pay attention to the temperature and not the manners ah.”

The butler on the other end of the phone smiled and talked about many more things before inadvertently mentioning one thing, he said,

“Master went to an auction abroad a few days ago to make arrangements for the work of the relevant person in charge, he has returned home by plane this afternoon, if you are free, you can come home to see.”

Mei Mu Lan had already had the intention of going home to meet Father Mei, and hearing this, she nodded and spoke into the phone,

“I'll be back tonight, it'll take me about two or three hours, you tell them to eat first, don't wait for me.”

It seemed that the butler didn't expect her to agree, and it took a moment for the caller to say,

“That's right, there's no such thing as a bad blood between father and daughter, you're right to think so, miss,”

Then with a relieved smile he hung up the phone.

Mei Mu Lan's gaze fell on the phone, but her eyes were unfocused, she was just dazed and lost in thought.

After a quick flash of the original owner's memories in her mind, she got up, went to her room to change into something more modest and drove back to the house.

When she arrived home, Father Mei was sitting on the sofa reading the newspaper, while his stepmother was sitting beside him, sipping slowly from a cup of tea. Although Father Mei was sitting upright at the moment, it was clear from his absent-minded expression and the way he looked towards the door from time to time that he was waiting for someone, and at this moment, the only one who could arrive home was Mei Mu Lan.

When Mei Mu Lan saw this scene, no matter what, her heart was still warmed, she thought for a moment then walked up to Father Mei and said in a soft voice,

“Father, I haven't seen you for a long time, are you well these days?”

When Father Mei heard this, he stared at her in a daze, he hadn't heard Mu Lan call him father for a long time, and it had been a long time since they had been this close to each other.

So he rose to his feet and said excitedly,

“Mu Lan, come with me, I have something to tell you.”

With that he turned and walked forward, not even bothering to put down the newspaper in his hand.

When her stepmother heard him speak in this way, her face immediately stiffened and the cup of tea she was holding in her hand began to shake unsteadily.

Her gaze looked at Mei Mu Lan with hatred, then after a cold look from Mei Mu Lan, she lowered her head again, not daring to meet her eyes again. That previous period of living with Mei Mu Lan for a few months was a living hell for her for so many years, and she never wanted to deal with Mei Mu Lan again.

So she turned her head away, silent and angry, and when Mei Mu Lan saw her act so childishly, she shook her head in some amusement, then turned to follow Father Mei's silhouette and went after him.

Father Mei's emotions were unstable at this time, he had actually wanted to find an opportunity to have a heart-to-heart communication with his daughter for a long time, but he had never been able to find the opportunity before.

He poured a lot of care and love into her, and after his wife's death, he always wanted a chance to talk to his daughter, but after he was forced to marry his current wife, now her stepmother, the relationship between him and his daughter was completely severed.

His daughter moved out of the house and never came back to the place, and every time he saw her, she had an angry and hateful look on her face that made it completely impossible for him to look her in the eye.

And just today, his daughter's attitude had clearly eased up, so he wanted to take this opportunity to tell her what he had been thinking all these years.

He led Mei Mu Lan back to his study and then the two just sat face to face on the sofa, talking together in an equal manner.

Father Mei said slowly, how much he had noticed and missed her over the years, and how supportive he was of her choice to enter the film industry, as well as some of his opinions. And finally,

“The reason I married your stepmother before was not for love reasons, but for cooperation. After your mother's death, I had to deal with the oppression of the clan, and for some internal reasons, we as a family could not do without a matriarch, and after I had considered it for a long time, it occurred to me that, instead of looking for a shrewd and unknown woman, I should look for a woman, whom I knew the details of, and who was not very clever and who is not too smart.

I heard from the butler that you have been living at home for a long time, and during this time, you have also been working against your stepmother. I believe that after this period of time, you should have a comprehensive understanding of your stepmother, she is actually a big-breasted and relatively simple person, very easy to control, that's why I, choose her as my wife. I hope you don't blame your father, it was a choice that had to be made.”

Mei Mu Lan then knew that there was such a □□□□□, which was not in the original owner's memory, because the original owner had died long ago, and before her death, indeed, as Father Mei had said, their relationship was not very good, and the original owner was very hateful towards her father.

She could feel that Father Mei had treated the original owner with sincerity, and since the original owner had long since passed away, it was she who now occupied this body, so she should also take on the responsibilities that come with this identity, including returning Father Mei's fatherly love.

So she said to Father Mei,

“I was young and ignorant and caused you a lot of trouble. Now that I know the truth, I hope you can forgive me for being so rash and ignorant.”

After hearing this, Father Mei was very happy and he said with a smile,

“As long as we can make up as father and daughter.”

The relationship between father and daughter improved completely after this conversation.

The father and daughter continued to talk about their latest situation and it was only after two hours or so, with a sleepy look on her father's face, that Mei Mu Lan got up to say goodbye and left.

When she left her father's room, Mei Mu Lan took out her mobile phone to check the time and found that it was already after twelve o'clock at night, it was so late in the day that it would take another hour or two to drive back to the villa.

So she chose to stay at home, after all, there was a room of her own here too, so she stopped walking outside and turned in the direction of her own room.

Some distance into the walk, on approaching her room, she heard a muffled voice.

The voice was familiar, but the tone was unmistakably eerie.

Curiosity rose and she slowly walked towards the origin of the sound. When she got there, she saw a public washroom, a place reserved for the guests of the Mei family, and how could anyone be here at this late hour?

She was puzzled and went to the corner, looked there and saw Bai Jieying in a white dress in front of the mirror, she was facing the mirror at the moment, the mirror showed a condensed and gloomy face, the face belonged to Bai Jieying, but the expression was indescribably strange, full of resentment and hatred, completely different from the usual Bai Jieying.

It's like - a different person.

With a shock in her heart, Mei Mu Lan busily pushed herself into the shadow area and hid in a corner where Bai Jieying could not see her, and waited until after a while, that eerie accent reappeared.

From where Mei Mu Lan was standing, she could only see Bai Jieying in the mirror, and seeing the strange woman in the mirror, she slowly spoke,

“We had previously agreed that I would help you achieve your heart's desire and in return you would offer me your soul and life, what, now you regret it?”

Mei Mu Lan frowned as a bold guess came to her mind, the woman who was speaking now, couldn't be the one who had crossed over, could she?

After her words fell to the ground, another voice sounded, still the same tone in fact, but with a world of difference in emphasis.

Bai Jieying's voice was tinged with urgency and anxiety as she said,

“I regret it, I don't want to give my body to you just to a scum and bitchy woman who has wronged me. I can't accept your methods, I don't want to breathe under different men and women, get out of this body for me.”

The woman in the mirror suddenly smiled again, and she said,

“The agreement has been made, don't you think it's too late to regret it now? Even if you regret it now, it's too late. I'm the one who uses this body most of the time now, so feel free to let your soul dissipate, and I will do what I promise, I swear by my name, Shu Yinge.”

Bai Jieying's eyes snapped open after hearing these words, she lost the use of her body before she could speak again, after half a minute the traveler entered Bai Jieying's body again, she straightened her clothes in the mirror and then walked towards the front door with a light smile, she had to meet Miss S tonight and it would not be good to be late.

Only when Bai Jieying's footsteps were far away did Mei Mu Lan turn around with a frown, return to her room and dart to **.

After what happened this evening, she was enlightened.

The traveler was given the right to use the body by agreement, so if she killed Bai Jieying directly, it would only be the original Bai Jieying who would die, while the soul of the traveler in question could not say whether it would die or leave this body and go inside another body.

In that case, it seems that the traveler will only be truly resolved if the soul consciousness of the traveler is crushed.

【"Ding", congratulations to host Mu Lan for understanding the true meaning of "solving the travelers", as a reward, the system opens the traveler identification device and starts to use it immediately.】

【Identification system in effect, identification content: The traveler of this world, named Shu Yinge, is a third-grade film actor from the Blue Star of the Galactic Plane, famous for making third-grade films and enjoying a high reputation on the Blue Star. Midway through her career as a film star, she quit the tertiary film industry and turned to film, appearing in a number of blockbusters and becoming the new queen of Blue Star.】

【Shu Yinge was a superb actress, but was in trouble because after she became famous for making films, she was approached by more and more big bosses who threw money at her, and was eventually chopped up and killed by her own boss's wife. After death, the soul's resentment could not dissipate, and after the accidental breakage of the virtual space-time, it took advantage of the broken passage and entered the virtual space-time, becoming Bai Jieying.】

【The reason why the system was solving her: she killed Ling Yi Yao at the late stage of becoming the Shadow Queen, causing the space-time to be disturbed and the world to collapse after three years, killing thousands of living beings, breaking the laws of virtual space-time and being disposed of by the virtual space-time administrator with soul destruction.】

【Host Mu Lan has received a new mission, the mission content: destroy the traveler Shu Yinge. May host Mu Lan complete the mission soon.】

After listening to the voice in her head, Mei Mu Lan immediately frowned, puzzled in her heart: why would the traveler killing Ling Yi Yao cause the virtual space-time to collapse? Who the hell is Ling Yi Yao? What does it have to do with virtual time and space?

Why, in virtual time and space, is it necessary to formulate tasks for system administrators to raid villainous bosses?

There were too many doubts, and Mei Mu Lan could not think of a reason even if she thought about it, so she stopped dwelling on it and turned to thinking about how to destroy the souls of the traveler.

After she became a movie queen, she didn't really want to go back to her old life, but in order to continue on this path in the acting world, she had to commit herself to doing what she didn't want to do under the bosses of various acting companies.

This traveler's soul is not considered a complete Shu Yinge, but only an amalgamation of Shu Yinge's grievances.

To resolve a cloud of resentment, one would be to impress her with good thoughts, which are not suitable for one's own use;

And the other simple and brutal way is to defeat her completely.

Mei Mu Lan does not know how to defeat her completely, but she knows how to make Bai Jieying return to her body, that is to hinder the progress of the travelers' mission. One of her agreements with Bai Jieying is to help her, to stand at the top of the entertainment industry and become the queen of all movies.

The other agreement is to take revenge on the scum and the best friend and make them regret it.

After thinking about it, Mei Mu Lan planned to throw the scum and her best friend to a corner first, where Bai Jieying couldn't find them. The world was so big, it wasn't an easy thing to find two people, let alone someone deliberately obstructing her.

The other way to thwart Bai Jieying is to take her time in planning. Fortunately, she has collected a lot of videos and pictures of Bai Jieying before, and they are all pictures of her walking out of the hotel with different men in the middle of the night.

However, releasing it just like that would not achieve a shocking effect, and she would have to wait patiently for a suitable time to do so.

The next day, after reporting to the set of 《Love in a Fallen City》, Mei Mu Lan went to ask Miss S to help her out.

She told Miss S about the original owner's conflict with Bai Jieying, but Miss S, after learning about it, instead smiled badly and said,

“I've spent so many nights with her, and she's made me so comfortable, I couldn't let her go, if……”

She paused and looked teasingly at Mei Mu Lan.

Mei Mu Lan looked at her coldly and said,

“Then I'll get Aunt Wen and ask her to talk to you.”

Miss S's face turned hard as she grunted when she heard the words,

“I really don't know if I owe you mother and daughter in a previous life, one or two of you are using Wen Xueluo to threaten me, all right, hurry up and get out of my sight or I'll regret it.”

Mei Mu Lan was originally only thinking about it, but she didn't expect it to work so well, she smiled cheekily and said,

“Thank you so much Auntie, you are so kind!”

With that, she left with a cheerful smile.

Leaving Miss S, stamping her feet in place and gritting her teeth.

Sure enough, on the third day, after the casting results for 《Love in a Fallen City》came out, there was no Bai Jieying's name on it. After reading the display board, Mei Mu Lan glanced at Bai Jieying and saw her pale face and stiff expression at that moment, and sighed in her heart: I sympathise with you too, but if the task is not completed, it will be me who dies.

Given the option of either you die or I die, she had to choose her.

After the casting results came out, Mei Mu Lan had one less thing on her mind and a sigh of relief in her heart. Instead, with a flourish, she took out five million from the bank and gave it to the scum and her best friend, using threats and enticements to force them out of the country and out of sight.

During that time, Aunt Wen returned from abroad and gave Mei Mu Lan a call. The two of them talked for more than three hours, and Mei Mu Lan incidentally told Aunt Wen about Miss S's return to China to make a film.

After listening, Aunt Wen was silent for a long time, and only when Mei Mu Lan asked worriedly did she say,

“Miss S, was a friend of your mother and I. The three of us grew up together, and your mother was the oldest and gentle in nature, so she was our big sister.

Miss S, on the other hand, is the youngest and the most arrogant and capricious, so she is our little sister. We had a good relationship back then, but something happened in the middle of it, so ...... your mother married your father and Miss S went abroad.

But since she's back home, it means that she's forgotten about what happened back then, which is a good thing. Miss S is very serious about her work, so you have to listen to her, okay?”

Mei Mu Lan replied,

“O, I know, I'll do as she asks, thank you Auntie Wen.”

“It's fine.”

Aunt Wen hung up the phone and searched for Miss S's phone number from eight years back, and then, after a long, long hesitation, dialed the number there.

This number, which is seven or eight years old, was inadvertently given to her at the time and she never thought she would actually be able to dial it.

After a phone tone, the call was answered and a familiar voice came through, in a tone that had never been colder, and she said,

“Who is it?”

“……”

When the call was answered, Aunt Wen was silent, she didn't know what she wanted to say and was about to hang up when a scolding voice came from the other side, saying,

“Damn, Wen Xueluo, you psycho, calling and not making a sound, you're dumb, right? I'm telling you, ......”

Aunt Wen couldn't help but laugh when she heard the familiar scolding accent, then said,

“Cheapskate, I'm Wen Xueluo ......”

“……”

Miss S on the other end of the phone was choking in general, unable to say a word, she deflated her mouth and secretly cut out a cry of contempt!

----

Sorry if I haven’t uploaded this pass days. School is keeping me busy and really stressed so I decided to upload chapters every Tuesday and Friday. Thank you for reading!

#shypotato #yuri #transmigration #world hopping #QTVW25

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halothenthehorns · 3 years ago

Text

TLTNL- BEYOND THE VEIL

James weighed the book uncertainly in his hand, though watching Harry was infinitely heavier. Harry was very clearly trying his hardest to push out for all of them that now Sirius wasn't there, everything should be okay, but not a one of them were fooled. He would not sit down, pacing anxiously along the length of the couch now that he had the room to stretch, but still hovering near Sirius more than was called for with what his own words said. The new voice that had just arrived did not feel like a good thing, not many people called Harry by his last name.

Shadows appeared all around them, Ginny gave a gasp of horror when she saw they were all wearing masks with wands pointed at their hearts.

So did they, but James couldn't bring himself to believe it until he said.

Malfoy repeated that Potter give that to him.

"Death Eaters!" Sirius spat. How was it even possible by this point the day would continue to grow worse by the second.

Though none of them had been fool enough to think at least some of Voldemort's minions wouldn't accompany him on whatever this was, the fact that the kids hadn't walked into some roaring battle left them with just a second of hope whatever had happened with Sirius had already been resolved. Now they became all to aware of that ambush.

"How did this even happen?" James demanded of nothing. He was far past his means for normal thought for the day, he still didn't even know if Sirius was okay for being in Voldemort's presence for how many hours!

"I can see it," Remus muttered uneasily, though his dry throat made it hard to keep going with his own thoughts. "Snape would have told what Harry said, the Order would have reacted getting in and out as fast as possible. We'd of course be weary and suspicious as hell-"

"That's a lot of if's and maybe's," Sirius hissed. "We still don't even know the Order found me-"

"Shut up Sirius," they all said at once.

Sirius scowled at the lot of them. He didn't like to think of the alternative either, but them pretending it hadn't happened wasn't going to make it better.

Lily pulled at the only spot of good she could find in Remus' idea, "so that means the Order may still be nearby."

James didn't see how that was making her feel any better, as he forced himself to keep going with his stomach turned into such a tight knot he was confident it wasn't ever going to come loose.

Harry's insides plummeted sickeningly. They were trapped, and outnumbered two to one.

"How many were there?" Remus rasped. He'd stupidly been envisioning just Malfoy, maybe one or two others that could go in and out of the Ministry, but that meant there were at least a dozen!

When Harry whispered as much, nobody wanted to believe him. Moments before they'd been sure they were fixing to hear about Sirius dying in this black abyss of a place, now they were wondering how Harry had gotten out! If all of his friends had...

"Keep going James!" Lily hissed, smacking him on the arm hard.

"Right, yeah," he muttered, having to forcefully drag his eyes back to the print, his heart still thudding so hard in his chest he'd blame that on the reason for his stuttering words.

Harry instead demanded where Sirius was, and a harsh female voice laughed loudly, mocking him the Dark Lord always knows!

"That's not an answer," Lily said venomously.

"They aren't gloating they still have him," Remus clutched to this idea like a lifeline. "They're just screwing with Harry."

Malfoy echoed always.*

"No, he doesn't," James countered at once, all the times his son had beaten Voldemort hovering right in his mind's eye now, he'd find a way out of this for everyone.

Then he again repeated Potter give him that prophecy.

"Prophecy's," Sirius whispered, causing Harry to shake worse than ever as they all looked to him. "I knew I remembered something about those. My Aunt's mentioned them, the one who said she was a Seer. She told me about Prophecy's at the Ministry..."

"What do those have to do with anything?" Remus demanded faintly, he'd certainly never had a care for these types of things before one nearly ruined Sirius' life.

"She ah, went into rather great detail," Sirius struggled to explain while keeping a casual tone, growing harder by the word as chills were emanating from Harry more every second. "About, how they look, and the Ministry puts the initials on them of the Seer and who the Prophecy was spoken to, who it's for-"

"So this Prophecy was made for Dumbledore from, okay that could be anyone." Lily muttered as she remembered those initials.

"What makes you say Dumbledore?!" James put his hands up in frustration they were all talking around him and he just wanted to hear of Harry being out of there, to find out where Sirius was now!

"The initials," Lily repeated them. "Those are the initials to his full name, that's how he'd even know about this weapon Voldemort wants."

"Well those aren't Voldemort's real initials," Sirius pointed out for the other one, "and I wonder why there's a question mark on before Harry's name."

"No, but it's about Voldemort," Remus agreed. "If someone like your Aunt was the person who put it in there, I'm not surprised they referred to him as Dark Lord. Why's it lit up though, when others were darkened out?" Remus asked, deciding now it was relevant he may as well interrogate Sirius for all this.

"Best guess, those that have happened go dark, and those that have yet to, stay lit," Sirius offered, screwing his face up to think back to that nine year old chatting with spooky old Aunt Misapinoa who always wore a shroud around her face.

Lily wasn't aware her heart could go numb until the sensation coiled around her chest, the only thing really helping her understand the words, "so, what? This, thing, what kind of weapon is it? A Prophecy about Voldemort and Harry, and it was made before he was even born." She didn't regret putting her infant away from all this, but suddenly she wanted him right back in her arms now, wondering if Dumbledore knew this existed now, did you have to be there for a Prophecy to be put in the Department of Mysteries? Voldemort had known about it before that Death Eater that worked in there had given details. Was there someone in the Order watching it that even they didn't know about?

"This is insane," Sirius huffed, even the one who'd believed in Seer magic all his life was having a hard time wrapping his mind around this. "The last one we heard didn't exactly have a wealth of information, bloody hell it wasn't even talking about the person I thought it was. What does Voldemort think he's going to get out of this?"

"This is all fascinating," James said, still too high strung to really make himself sound like that as he told Sirius, "but you're pulling shit out of your arse, and I'd rather just hear about it away from there by now!"

Sirius huffed, he was only trying to help, but didn't stop James as he tried to keep going.**

Harry ignored this and snapped he wanted to know where Sirius was!

The same female mocked these words back at him.

Sirius blinked slowly, he had not heard mockery like that in many long years already...

The Death Eaters were so close now Harry's group couldn't have stuck a wand between them as the woman kept going in a mock baby voice that poor wittle Potter had been fwightened by a dweam he thought was tuoo.

James wasn't doing a very good job on that mocking voice, he'd never be able to mock his child for something like this, but even still, his voice didn't particularly come out like his own at the end.

"Does she really get some kind of glory from mocking him?" Remus tried to say in some kind of disgust, but it didn't come out quite right.

Lily couldn't speak, the ghastly pallor of her skin promised nothing coherent anyways.

Harry couldn't feel his own mouth, it was as if something else was speaking through him, "Hermione was right-"

"No she wasn't," Remus hissed, his eyes too bright. "It's not possible, Voldemort couldn't- he didn't know- how could she- how could anyone-"

"Moony-" Sirius tried to say, a look of dawning horror pushing fear for his own future into an even more unstable regards seeing as now he had no clue what was even real anymore.

"Later," James snarled at the both of them. His whole body was still shaking from the pounding of his heart, and whatever was the truth would have to be just that, later, he had to hear about his son living through this first.

Ron moved just slightly, but Harry softly warned him not yet.

This caused the woman to scream with mirthless laughter, demanding they all watch as Potter gave instructions to these children, as if they were actually going to fight.

"Damn straight." Sirius said with absolution. Whatever was going on here, Harry wasn't going to take that lying down, at least that was one solid thing he could get his head around.

Malfoy wasn't as amused as her, saying Bellatrix didn't know Potter as he did, he had a weakness for heroics, which the Dark Lord understood about him.

"Probably from the last time where he beat him in front of all of them!" Lily stated, trying to shift her weight into her own fighting stance and having to forcefully remember there were no Death Eaters in her living room now, threatening her family. She'd saved her son last time, but it had been Harry that had brought her and James there, he'd find a way out from this too.

Malfoy again demanded the Prophecy.

James gave not a second to spare that Sirius may have been right on what these things were, he didn't care about anything anymore unless it involved his son and friends running back out of there.

Harry ignored that again and insisted he knew Sirius was here, they had him!

The Death Eaters just laughed again, the woman hardest of all.

Malfoy insisted this was the real world, no dream of his, and if he didn't hand over that prophecy they were going to start using wands.

Harry egged them to do it, while ignoring his own mounting panic that he'd led his friends to their death for nothing.

"No Harry," Lily said at once, hating to cut James off now more than ever, but she wouldn't let him think this for a second. "You were only doing what you thought was right at the time, no one would ever-"

Harry couldn't hear the rest. He was sure there was more, but the moment she stopped he gave a jerky nod in whatever agreement that was supposed to be just so his dad would keep going.

Lily was not at all appeased, she knew by the fact his face didn't change one bit he hadn't heard her, but there would be time for him to hear here after he was out of there.

The Death Eaters did not move though, Malfoy still insisting it be handed over.

Harry just laughed, mocking back that he would and they'd let them all just skip off home then?

"Maybe even give you some pocket money for the journey," James sneered under his breath, unable to stop his own sharp tongue responding to such ludicrousy.

Bellatrix lost her patience and tried to summon it to her, but Harry blocked it with the Protego charm.

Angered, Bellatrix began another curse, but Malfoy stopped her, telling her not to smash it!

"They just gave an advantage," Remus said quietly, low under his breath like he was only trying to speak to those around him. Adrenaline was telling all of them to get ready for a right.

Harry hardly heard them, his mind racing fast for a way out of this, to make sure none of his friends paid a price for his stupidity.

Sirius leaned in protectively close to Harry, the urge burning to tell him just how not stupid this was, none of this was his fault, but Harry was still thinking of the more important issue at hand, keeping his wits, they could handle this issue later.

The woman removed her mask then, and Harry saw that Azkaban had hollowed out Bellatrix Lestrange's features, but her eyes were still alive with a fanatic glow.

Sirius snarled fiercely, as if all his hair would go on end if it could. He suddenly couldn't decide if it would even be better for that pathetic rat to be there instead, but that deranged being around his godson actually felt worse.

"That's one of the vermin who tormented Frank and Alice," Lily shrieked in outrage.

James muttered a desperate plea as if in prayer before managing to keep going no matter how much it strained his voice. His eyes burned so much it was a miracle he could still see the words, he couldn't believe it had somehow all come back to Harry being near that twisted being.

Her chest was heaving with anticipation as she tried the new tactic of suggesting they start torturing others instead until Potter gave that up, they'd start with the little girl, she'd do it herself.

"No!" Harry said that with such force, James actually stopped for a moment just to glance at him in concern. The flat, sharp word had promised death to the first person who so much as looked at Ginny the wrong way now, which James could honestly appreciate as he felt the same towards Lily, though he was sure it wasn't the exact same for Harry.

Harry stepped sideways so he was right in front of Ginny, the others too blocking her from sight and wands held up to their chest, the prophecy now the center of all them.

Remus shifted his weight restlessly even as he felt Harry was to be congratulated for putting himself in their line of fire. He had the object they so wanted, and was least likely to be killed of all those kids.

Harry tried stalling instead, asking what was so important about this thing? He couldn't think of anything else, he hoped the others were thinking of a way out of this, his mind was still blank with panic.

"Better than screaming panic," Lily assured, that was still half of her mind.

Bellatrix asked if he was jesting?

"Not really, no," Remus muttered, though even his own mouth wasn't registering to his own ears.

Harry said he wasn't, he wanted to know why Voldemort wanted this.

This caused the most outrage from the Death Eaters, Bellatrix shrieking he dare say that name with his half-blood's tongue!

"So is she saying pure-bloods could?" Sirius tried for a bland tone of voice in mocking back, though he'd never more felt the urge to simply slam a door shut on some member of his family's face.

He was ignored by James anyways, they'd never less cared about the taboo on Voldemort's name most people carried, especially his own followers. James wished Harry wouldn't choose now to provoke these Death Eaters even as he commended it on further keeping them off guard.

Harry recklessly shouted back Voldemort was just as much a half-blood.

"Are you mad!" Lily shrieked, watching her son and expecting him to drop dead any second now. "To tell that to them now!"

"I don't blame him," James frowned heavily at that even while wanting to clap him on the shoulder. "Piss them off well enough, they'll stop thinking, kids can make a run for it."

"Go big or go home," Remus said faintly, thinking of all the times for Harry to let his own mouth get away from him.

Harry told what he knew to taunt them, how his father had been a Muggle-

Bellatrix tried to shout Stupefy at him-

"You're lucky that's the curse she sent!" Sirius screeched in Harry's ear. He remembered his own times when he had showed even a little rebellion in questioning what Voldemort was doing, what his family would do to punish him for that. It was an actual miracle none had tried to draw Harry's blood for that comment alone.

Harry had winced and rubbed at his ear as he looked to Sirius, his right hand still trying to curl around nothing, like he had the prophecy clasped there now.

Malfoy blocked the spell for him though, bawling in her ear not to hit that prophecy!

Her spell went wild, and two little glass orbs fell from the shelves instead. The glass shattered, and foggy little figures appeared where the remnants still were, and began to speak.

"Well I guess we figured out how to work them," Sirius said faintly.

However, in the din of the two Death Eater's shouting at each other, not a word was heard from either of them, and then they vanished without a trace.

"Wonder if you even could repair that," Remus muttered, though honestly thinking not, these were such heavily magical objects he couldn't even begin to guess at, they seemed beyond such normal means of fixing as that charm. It would not at all surprise him if in fact those were now gone forever.

This gave Harry an idea, so that when Malfoy turned his attention back to Harry, he began again why this prophecy was so important, while moving as slowly as possible to find someone's foot with his own.

Malfoy told him to stop playing around, and Harry insisted he wasn't just as he found Hermione's toes, as a sharp gasp informed him.

Malfoy sneered that Dumbledore had never told Potter the reason he bore his scar was hidden in the bowels of the Department of Mysteries?

James' mouth opened with some new disturbing noise making an appearance, and he'd thought he was all out of those. They'd all known Dumbledore was holding back answers from Harry, he'd said so himself at the end of his first year. So this was somehow the most insulting thing Malfoy could have said, that he knew more about Harry than them!

Harry was so distracted by this, he at first forgot his plan as he demanded of Malfoy what of his scar?

Hermione insisted on keeping his attention though, and while Malfoy laughed in surprised delight, Harry hardly breathed the words smash shelves.

"That'll cause plenty of distraction," Remus said, so distracted himself they were right on the edge of that answer it had almost for a moment made him forget who was giving it.

Malfoy stated this explained why Potter hadn't come for this himself now, the Dark Lord had thought it's mere existence would draw him here.

Harry finished whispering to Hermione to wait for his signal and pass it along before quickly engaging Malfoy to keep his attention why he had to be the one to come get it, why not himself?

Malfoy looked incredulously delighted as he stated only those whom prophecies were about could retrieve them, something the Dark Lord had learned by trying to use others already.

Lily could feel it, the swills at the edge of her mind as an explanation for the madness of this year lay somewhere in there, if only she could think past her own harsh breaths for her son still being in this danger.

When asked why they even wanted a prophecy about him, Malfoy corrected about him and the Dark Lord, hadn't Potter ever wondered why Voldemort tried to kill him as a child?

'Every damn day since this started,' James felt the passing thought, honestly wishing now more than ever for that answer if it would somehow stop all this from happening...

Harry gazed at the slitted eye holes with something he'd never felt before, his hand tightening around the glass spun ball harder than ever, were those answers really in the palm of his hand?

James couldn't help but look to Harry desperately in that moment, like he was hoping his son would suddenly start telling them what had been inside, that all of this really hadn't been one humongous heart attack with nothing to show for it.

Harry was having a hard time looking at him though, he only felt like he was a burden of a reminder to them now more than ever. If he hadn't been born, this prophecy wouldn't have been made, they'd still be alive.

Still, as he felt Hermione show more than tell the others his plan, he asked why didn't Voldemort just come get it himself?

Bellatrix found this idea ridiculous, considering the Ministry was too busy chasing after her dear cousin, there was no need to bring to their attention of the Dark Lord's presence.

"Then why's she there?" Sirius spat hatefully, he couldn't believe Bellatrix would bring this up now. "It's no more implausible!" He wasn't going to let anyone insult Harry's intelligence, especially because they'd all been thinking the same thing.

"That is a relatively good question," Remus agreed in disgust, wondering at the planning to all this, how the Death Eaters had managed to infiltrate the Ministry and leave the area so clear for Harry and his friends to come. "Just not important right now Pads."

Sirius grumbled even as he agreed, several curses still flipping through his mind for the start of a fight he wasn't involved in.

Harry now understood this was just dirty work then, like Sturgis and Bode had failed to do.

"It is remarkable how fast you put that together," Lily praised even as she stayed trained on the book, on the answer of how badly this had gone wrong before he'd come here.

Malfoy began to congratulate that at least he wasn't unintelli-

Harry shouted now, and as one all six of them shouted reducto, and all spells managed to hit shelves and bring down the isles around them. Harry seized a handful of the nearest persons robes, dragging them along as he shouted to run while mayhem rained down.

Harry could feel that pulsing adrenaline thudding through him now, how even as his hand wanted to remain fastened tight around his wand he still wanted to grab the nearest person and make a run for it in all the chaos, his hand still around nothing though apparently convinced he was holding that precious spun glass now. It was helping nothing he had no good way to work that out of his system.

At least one Death Eater lunged forward to try and stop them, but Harry elbowed him in the face as Ginny, Ron, and Luna ran past, Harry keeping hold of Hermione who was in turn yelling at Neville to keep up through ever more glass shattering around them.

A hand caught him on the shoulder-

Lily inhaled so sharply it hurt her own throat, but that wouldn't have stopped the curse exploding half the living room if James hadn't kept going on the same breath.

but Hermione shouted Stupefy at the same instant and Harry was released. The other three were no longer in sight, but they turned right and ran ahead to the door they'd entered, blinking and finding themselves back in the time room. Hermione tuned on the spot and shouted Colloportus, and the door made an odd squelching noise as it sealed itself.

"I can't believe they got out of that," Remus sagged against the back of his seat, honestly needing the support as he couldn't make his own limbs stop shaking.

Harry hardly noticed, he was looking wildly around for the others, but Ginny, Ron, and Luna weren't in here as he'd thought.

"No," Harry gasped, the word not nearly enough to cover the terror pumping through him now.

James was honestly seized with that exact same fear for a moment. He had no true connection to the Weasley kids, had only known of Luna's existence because of his son, but he couldn't imagine anything happening to them either without wanting to shed an honest tear. These were just a bunch of kids with Death Eaters hounding them!

"Harry," Sirius said desperately, as his breaths had been coming out in sharp little gasps of pain. "Harry, they're going to be fine, all of them, you trained them!"

Harry looked to him in mostly disbelief, and a little hope. "You think I'm so good a teacher, I taught them enough to get away from Death Eaters!" His voice was very near shouting at the end, wanting Sirius to hear clearly how stupid he was being for this idea.

"They've gotten this far," Sirius reminded, his eyes wide and pleading, "so have you. No need to go hurting yourself if you've got confidence," he tried to actually end with a smile.

Harry still found his godfather insane, but for now he stopped pushing at his memories no matter how hard it was. At least he had Sirius with him now, as some consolation for not knowing his future. He didn't have Ron though, Ginny or Luna in his sights, some claim their lives weren't affected by him except these harrowing memories. He had to trust Sirius though, he had to let his dad keep going, he'd be no good to anyone if he died now simply trying to remember who lived.

Hermione squeaked they must have gone the wrong way, but Neville hissed at them to listen. Not moments later, something heavy slammed against the door, and heard Malfoy's voice telling Nott to leave him, the Dark Lord cared nothing for their injuries if they lost that prophecy.

"Really puts into perspective how much they all care for each other," Lily whispered, still wide eyed with far more fear for this than actual care for one of the monsters who'd caused the problem.

Then Malfoy began organizing them, telling them all to be gentle with Potter until they had that prophecy, but kill whomever else they could.

James's voice hitched for an extra moment. He hadn't been delusional in thinking otherwise, but the words sounded so careless he couldn't believe he'd let them pass his lips!

Bellatrix, Rodolphus, were to go left;

"So, go anywhere but left," Sirius hissed, still refusing to think of Harry anywhere near those two in particular.

Crabbe and Rabastan were to go right, Jugson and Dolohov straight go around, Macnair and Avery through this door here, Rookwood that way, and Mulciber was to come with him.

"So we now have a definite amount," Remus muttered, keeping a head count. "I doubt any are still hiding Malfoy doesn't know about."

"Eleven," James agreed, "where's Goyle?"

"Probably the one Nott was trying to rouse, likely knocked out," Lily murmured.

"Lets just hope he hasn't gone for backup," Sirius said dangerously, none of them able to quite grasp the emotion of relief one in particular wasn't there, they wouldn't know how to handle that feeling right now.

Hermione was trembling from head to foot as she asked what were they to do?

Hermione's question felt like a wet blanket smothering them all. They all wanted to scream what the right thing to do was, but that was impossible, there was no right answer here. They weren't there for Harry, all they could do was listen to what had been done.

Harry said first of all they weren't going to just stand around.

"Good a start as any," Remus muttered.

Harry made to go back to the door he was sure would lead back to the black anti-room, but then from behind the two Death Eater's continued trying to knock down the door. One had the idea to use the Alohomora charm, and the three only just had time to duck under some desks.

One Death Eater suggested they'd already run through this room, but the other said they were still to check under the desks.

Lily worried heavily at her lip, still trying to envision what the right move was, to run or ambush. As of now, they outnumbered the Death Eaters, so this was likely the best strategy, but it was all the more frustrating she couldn't offer the advice, she'd never felt more useless just sitting here and knowing it had already happened.

Harry watched the boots coming closer, ducking down under each desk, and waited until one was right in front of him before shouting Stupefy.

The red light had him falling backwards right towards the grandfather clock and knocking it over.

"That won't keep him down long, be sure you at least take his wand away before you keep going," Sirius couldn't help but caution, thinking the Order had better show up soon!

The second was turning towards Harry, but saw Hermione scrambling out from under her's first and began to shout Avada-

James almost couldn't get the spell out, more from shock than anything it was really going so far already, but then Harry was trying to jump to his feet in true alarm and Sirius had to rope his arm around him to keep him in place and hiss in his ear to listen for James to finish to know that didn't happen.

Harry tackled the man to the ground, causing the spell to go awry.

Harry could still hardly breathe for a moment, still fighting back the impulse to do the same in here with nothing to show for it, he was going to drive himself mad and was half tempted to ask someone to take his wand away in fear he'd curse one of them by mistake if this kept up!

None of the others seemed worried of this fact, Sirius loosened his hold on Harry even as they all still felt the same urge they were having to beat back. None of them had ever sat idle in a fight and this felt near as bad as doing just that.

Neville overturned his desk in his anxiety to help, and shouted Expelliarmus at the struggling two.

"That'll do some good!" Remus yelped, though he'd jerked hard in surprise of that spell coming out, not recommended as it would send both targets wands flying! He just couldn't find it in him to scold Neville either, at least he was still reacting and thinking on his feet.

Both wands went flying, and both wizards scrambled after them. Neville, horror struck at what he'd done, came forward and tried to repair his mistake telling Harry to get out of the way. Harry dodged to the side as Neville shouted stupefy.

James made a noise of approval even while he couldn't stop again, to know who got there first, at least Neville was correcting his mistake, he'd learn his way around a fight yet even if he'd still wish the poor kid never to be in one like this anymore than his own child.

The spell collided above rather than on the Death Eater, knocking over a glass-fronted cabinet and spilling it all forward, everything flying around and giving the Death Eater time to grab his wand.

His mask had slipped sideways during his and Harry's struggle so he couldn't see,

"A use for those I never thought of," Sirius spared the breath for Harry even as his every attention was still trained more on his past than his present.

and he ripped that free before beginning to shout stu-

Hermione got there first, her jet of red light catching him dead center.

"I'd have let Neville have another go," Remus said with disdain even as he was finally thankful Hermione was there as well.

"Which Death Eater was that?" James barked at Harry, hoping his son would recognize the scum that had actually tried to kill Hermione.

"Best guess, Crabbe, err, senior," Harry admitted, not having recognized him exactly, but the facial similarities had been there, though he had a distinct feeling they wouldn't remain for long...

He fell back suspended in his own body towards the bell jar, his wand falling as well back among the mess.

Sirius realized his advice before hadn't crossed Harry's mind either time, and it was something very twisted to him this was the first real scrum Harry had been in regarding the war, and he had no foreseeable backup!

Harry expected him to simply thunk against the glass and slide down, but instead his head went right through as if there were nothing in the way, everything above his shoulders now mixed in with the glittering wind.

"Err," Lily said without a touch of concern but some honest confusion.

"I could have said don't stick your face in that, but I guess he wasn't going to hear," Sirius said as he eyed that curiously.

"Don't care," James muttered, thinking whatever magic was in there could do whatever it pleased to that Death Eater and continuing more loudly still.

Hermione summoned Harry's wand and handed it back to him, but before they could do anything else Neville shouted a warning cry still staring at the bell jar.

"The stunner wouldn't have worn off that fast," Remus yelped.

"Who knows what kind of magic is in that thing, maybe it negated it," Sirius muttered uneasily.

Except the Death Eater was not rearing up for another attack, instead his head was deaging. His hair was retracting into him, his face smoothing out and while leaving the rest of his bodies proportions untouched, soon there was a tiny baby head in place.

"Oh, my, word." Lily managed to say as she sat back in her seat, just the thought of this happening to someone had her wanting to back away in surprise.

"There's karma somewhere in there," James muttered as he furiously flipped the page, his intrigue more than smothered by still wanting to haul his son out of there rather than investigating this thing.

Like the chicken before, even as they watched it began again, his head starting to grow back correctly, but as he tried to sit up and shake off the effects it started up again just as fast.

They were distracted from watching the progress by a crash in an adjacent room, and Harry at once shouted for his three missing friends.

The Death Eater managed to get his head free of the jar then, but his appearance was left bizarre, a bawling babies head atop the thick man body. His fists were waving about without intent, and Harry ducked to avoid a blow.

James was finding it harder and harder to brush past something so utterly disturbing to him, though he wasn't sure if he'd find it in himself to stick the Death Eater's head back in to repair it before knocking him out more effectively...

Harry raised his wand at the stumbling form, but Hermione seized him and told him he couldn't curse a baby.

"I, don't-" That was all Remus could get out. Somewhere in there was a fascinating turn of conversation, but honestly too much else was going on for him to get into it. James still had a twisted look on his face even as he kept going, maybe he could bring it up later with Harry.

Harry didn't argue, there were footsteps headed towards them, and Harry realized to late he should not have shouted and given away their position.

Harry was vaguely surprised no one had blamed him for that in here, but honestly it seemed because they would have done the same. Despite his own internal warning, nothing could stop someone for shouting now in all this mayhem.

Deciding to leave the baby-headed Death Eater for now,

Sirius still had his mouth half open, the urge to question how on earth that was a functioning moving thing still present, but James just didn't want to hear it from any of them. All he was really thinking was, two down.

they tried to hurry away, but two more Death Eaters were already coming in the door behind them, and instead they ducked into the nearest door holding what appeared to be nothing more than a cluttered office and slammed the door.

Hermione tried to use the colloportus spell again, but the door was thrown back before she had a chance and with a cry of triumph, both Death Eaters shouted Impedimenta.

Lily cursed heavily, knowing both of those using the spell at once would do far more damage than just temporarily slowing her child.

All three of them were thrown heavily off their feet, Neville flipping right over a desk, Hermione smashing into a bookcase which tipped all of its contents right over on her,

Sirius still had it somewhere in him to note irony in that even if he had no ability to laugh at it.

and Harry fell back into the stone wall with little lights bursting into his eyes, leaving him dizzy.

"Those idiots, they could have smashed the prophecy," Remus sneered through his own mounting worry they were going to make Harry lose his only advantage.

"Priorities Moony," Sirius grumbled, clearly misunderstanding, "I want to hear that too, but let's focus on Harry getting out first."

Remus didn't bother to correct his point.

One yelled for all to hear they'd caught them, but Hermione gathered herself first and shouted Silencio at him. The second Death Eater pushed him aside, but he could do no more before Harry shouted Petrificus Totalus at him and he fell back stiff as a board.

The first Death Eater wasn't done. Though still struck dumb, he made a slashing movement at Hermione, and a streak of purple flame went right through her chest.

Sirius choked, his arm fell fully away in surprise-

Hermione gave an oh of surprise before she crumpled to the floor.

"Cultrohexia-" Remus tried to begin explaining, recognizing that look on Harry's face and hoping to stop him panicking for just one second she wasn't dead, but too late.

"No!" Harry tore from his seat, but instead of their fears, he fled to the kitchen. They found him trying not to apprate, but kicking furiously at the table as he glared with fury up at the ceiling.

"Harry-"

"I have to go back!" Harry roared, not looking at any of them. "I can't, they can't- I have to get back there!"

"Harry listen to yourself!" Lily insisted as she tried darting around in front of him, but she may as well not have been there. "This happened to you when you were fifteen, you're older now, whatever happened you can't help them with that now-"

"Something was happening to them right- argh!"

"Harry! Oh, Harry-" Lily pleaded, kneeling down with him as he began sinking to the floor, holding his head again.

"We can't keep doing this," James said as he watched him curling into himself in pain while kneeling down on his other side and glaring at the book hatefully for causing all this. They never should have started these things, there had to be an easier way for Harry to regain his memories. "He's going to kill himself trying to remember what happened to them-"

"Then we'll stop him," Sirius snapped, striding over to get the potion and force him to relax again.

"Sirius."

The high note, pleading voice forced him to hesitate and glance back at him for a second.

The only thing stopping the thick fog from clearing Harry's mind and leaving the rest of his body in a state of pain that wasn't bearable, was somehow still his godfather. He still wanted more than anything the assurance his friends had survived this day, but Sirius was still here with him now, and no matter how much Harry had been pretending otherwise, there was something more pressing than memories he couldn't grasp. This was ridiculous, Sirius wasn't even there, how could he still be more worried about his godfather at this time? It wouldn't shake off though, clinging like a shield he'd had no intentions of putting up. One memory at a time, he had to know what happened to him first.

He couldn't breathe, this made no sense, so the instant Sirius was at his side with the vial, he took it gratefully, clinging to the numbness it brought even if it only lasted a few moments before he was brought back to his surroundings and forced to realize what he was doing to those around him.

"I'm sorry, I wish there was more we could do for you back then," Lily told him as she watched his green eyes flit back to any semblance of normal remembering all this could allow.

'Or, anything!' James mentally yelled, but kept that one to himself. Instead he helped him back to his feet, and it worried them all greatly Harry was still shaking. He wasn't finding any relief in here, with them, like he had when Voldemort had returned. As if his subconscious was still warning him there would be no relief, no savoir from his parents.

It did them no good to try anything else though but to keep going no matter how much they'd rather do anything else, at this point they knew they couldn't have stopped. They needed to know Hermione was okay just as much as Harry. For all of her, annoyances, she was Harry's friend as much as Sirius was theirs. They couldn't imagine anything happening to her now anymore than their own kid, it should have been to dismal for even this future to handle.

Harry fell to his knees beside her, screaming her name as Neville crawled out from behind his desk to see. The Death Eater kicked out at him, breaking his wand and connecting with his foot with the same blow and Neville backed out of sight again with a howl of pain.

Lily covered half of her face to smother her gasp of surprise, all to easily picturing that happening to Alice even more than Neville and the poor mothers reaction.

Harry twisted around and saw the Death Eater ripping off his mask, and Harry recognized him as Antonin Dolohov, the man who'd killed the Prewetts.

Harry let out a snarl of outrage, even as he kept tight to Sirius' side he couldn't help but glance uneasily around the room, that feeling like hot lava warning theirs would not be the only death the man was responsible for. 'Please, let it not be Hermione's!' He pleaded with everything he could.

Still keeping his wand trained on Harry now, he pointed at the prophecy, then himself, then Hermione, the meaning couldn't have been more plane.

"Oh good, Harry understands silent language far better than Sirius ever did," Remus babbled uneasily.

Harry snapped he'd be dead the moment he did so! He was all white panic, clinging to Hermione's shoulder which was still warm, so she wasn't dead yet! His voice mentally pleaded with her not to be dead, it would be his fault if she was!

"No, it's not!" Remus snapped. He hated watching Harry blame himself for these things, likely because he had too much practice with this himself if anything remotely went wrong around him. "That's a bloody dangerous spell, pure dark magic that'll leave your innards like they were plunged with a knife, but the spell doesn't leave any mark. If he hadn't been silenced, it would have been even more dangerous, but since it's a verbal only spell, half the damage was done. So long as she gets treated, she'll be fine!"

"And if she doesn't get help in time?" Harry whispered.

Remus had no answer, he didn't want to tell Harry that even the verbal spell wasn't instantaneous death because it left one slowly dying on the inside even as they were able to move around for a few minutes more while the spell took affect. Instead, he only said what they were all hoping, "she will."

Harry breathed slowly as he heard that, willing that feeling to be true more than just a simple hope.

Neville rose to his feet, broken wand in hand with blood pouring down his face as he shouted at Harry 'don'd gib it to him!'

James's face puckered in agitation for trying to talk like that, and under normal circumstances he would have reveled in plugging his nose, trying to mimic this as best he could. He'd hope it would go on long enough Sirius would try his hand at it, and the two could see who could mimic this speech the best. Now all he could think was, one against eight, considering he still had no clue where the last three kids were.

Neville tried to shoot a spell, but nothing was happening from his broken wand. Then there was a crash behind them as the baby-headed Death Eater came stumbling in, his wails still echoing all around, and Harry took Dolohov's distraction in watching to shout Petrificus Totalus. The spell hit, he toppled face forward unable to move an inch.

Seven, James mentally corrected, though the slowly dwindling number wasn't helping anyone to breathe any easier, they were all keeping the same count and even against one the numbers would never feel bearable no matter how good Harry was. He was only using the minimum spells of defense, there was no more force to this than he'd be using against a DA member, and that was going to bite him in the arse later when these spells simply wore off...

Harry at once turned attention back to Hermione, trying to get her to wake up, until Neville crawled forward and told him he could feel a pulse, he was sure of it, through his broken nose.

James felt his limbs go weak, actually closing his eyes for a moment for the simple thanks he felt for that!

Harry asked if he was sure, and Neville said he thought so.

Not remotely the most reassuring answer Neville could have given, but Harry finally stopped the feeling he was going to keel over himself as the image repainted before his eyes, her eyes closed almost peacefully, but he just couldn't tell if it was sleep or...

There was a pause as Harry listened for anymore noise, but all they could hear was the blunderings of the still standing baby-headed Death Eater crashing around.

"That's a thing now," Lily shook her head, not even remotely distracted from the real matter of what her son was living through.

Harry turned to Neville and asked if he could make his way out with Hermione, try to find help, but Neville refused, saying he was staying with Harry until they found everyone. Harry tried to protest, but Neville picked up Hermione's wand and said he'd carry her.

"No," Remus couldn't help but protest no matter how much he admired Neville for this. "He really should take off with her, he's only another target now following behind like that!"

"What if he does run into more Death Eater's though, then he won't have any way to defend himself, he needs to stick close to Harry," Sirius disagreed.

There was just no point in predicting the future, certainly no one ever would have seen this coming, so both mutually decided not to let the argument continue.

Harry only hesitated a moment before helping to lift Hermione over his shoulder and the two began to leave. Neville gave the broken remnants of his wand one look as he passed, whispering his Gran was going to kill him, that was his dad's old wand.

James made such a small little noise he wasn't even aware he had anymore than the others. He couldn't help it though, his mind immediately launched off with the idea, of what had happened to his wand, and Lily's, had Remus or Sirius ever come across them and still had them after all these years? He still had his parents wands stored in his Gringotts vault, mementos of them Harry still never had from his own!

Lily shook her head slowly for this though, whispering, "I'm positive the woman will just be more thankful her only grandchild's alive." She knew she could never give enough thanks for that hearing all he'd done without her in his life.

Harry cautiously stuck his head back into the Time room, watching the baby-head Death Eater still destroying the room while screaming,

"Please stop mentioning that, it gets more disturbing the longer I think about it," Remus huffed, though honestly he just wanted all of this to stop being mentioned already. After the year Harry had there, he couldn't believe he'd still rather hear of him back at Hogwarts.

while the glass-fronted cabinet that Harry now suspected had contained Time-Turners continued to fall, shatter and repair itself on the wall behind them.

"Err," Sirius muttered, his brows shooting up in shock.

"Wonder what on earth magic could be used to fix that," James agreed with surprise.

No one else in sight though, they finally made it to the dark anti-room where the door swung shut behind them and once again the whirl of doors started, except now when they stopped Hermione's x's had faded.

Harry began to ask which they should choose, but before they could make a decision, one on their right sprang open and three people fell out.

Lily felt a scream building up in her own throat. Despite having just soothed Harry from doing this, she was finding it harder every second not to be wailing her own head off with worry for all of this happening.

Harry at once darted to the Weasley siblings in relief, asking if they were alright.

"Oh bloody thank goodness," James moaned, feeling finally something had gone right, though he kept reading with heavy worry Luna hadn't been mentioned!

Ron seized him while giggling, lurching forward as he did so with his eyes unfocused.

"What's wrong with Ron?" Sirius hissed, feeling as territorial of all these kids at this point as if they were all his pup.

Even while giggling, his face was extremely white, and something dark was leaking out the side of his mouth. Then his knees gave out, and still holding onto Harry, he pulled him into a kind of half bow as he fell to the floor.

"What did they do to him?" Lily demanded venomously, her wand still griped furiously in her hand and aching to turn that on someone any moment for hurting these kids!

He tried to ask Ginny what had happened, but she was just as pale as she slid down to the floor, though she was holding her ankle in silent pain.

"Ginny," Harry whispered, leaning forward in concern like he was trying to catch her before she fell. He couldn't believe this was happening around him, the panic was gripping him so tight he couldn't breathe!

Luna, who alone seemed unscathed, said she thought Ginny's ankle had been broken,

"Oh thank Merlin!" James breathed, not having meant to say Luna's name extra loud but now at least they were all alive, and could get out of there!

four of them had chased them into some room full of planets-

Ron interrupted with a feeble snicker that they'd seen Uranus up close!

"A joke's never as funny the second time," Remus said flatly, trying to give Sirius an obvious look, but both were too worried about the state Ron was in to pay attention to even their own picking.

Then a bubble of blood came out the side of his mouth.

Harry hadn't thought it possible, but he was somehow all the more worried no one around him was trying to comfort him this was going to be okay anymore. No one had a suggestion what was wrong with Ron, or that the exit could be right behind them now that all six were together.

Luna kept talking Ginny had used the Reductor curse on Pluto right in a Death Eater's face,

"Hope it killed him," Lily spluttered in surprise for using that spell in anyone's face, but she wouldn't deny the effectiveness of anything right now.

but one had grabbed her ankle and she'd heard a snap, finishing with a hopeless wave at Ginny who was breathing shallowly.

Harry asked fearfully for Ron's status, who was still hanging from Harry's front.

It didn't feel possible, as James kept ushering out words practically faster than the others could follow, that it really was just Harry and Luna in able fighting condition against seven Death Eaters! Now their worry for Ron and Hermione were still rival, maybe even a little more than Harry as they could at least look at him and know he was alive and fine!

Luna didn't know, she'd never heard the curse used on him, but he was acting funny and she'd barely gotten him along.

Harry had heard all he needed. He asked Luna to help Ginny along, and though the blonde ducked down to assist,

Remus tried to breathe easier for just a second, trying to console himself Ginny could still fight even if she'd be far more off balance, this wasn't impossible to get out of.

Ginny snapped she could do it herself and pushed herself up the wall, though immediately collapsed again and had to hold Luna for support.

"Now's not the time to be proud," Lily snapped, wanting to shove the Gryffindor streak up Ginny's nose and get those kids moving no matter how much she may have acted the same.

Harry pulled Ron's arm over his shoulder just as, so many months ago, he had pulled Dudley's.

James could hardly think of anything else right now, let alone something like a dementor attack which would feel like a walk in the park after this nightmare, at least Harry could get himself out of that no problem, this still felt more like he was reading about someone's funeral any second. Yet at the same time, he understood it, found how much more precious and dangerous this was to Harry. He may feel it for a time if something had happened to Dudley, but now, Ron was the first family he'd had, he could not lose him any more than Sirius.

Then he looked desperately at the dozen of doors for the way out, but without taking a step three Death Eaters came pouring out of the door across from them led by Bellatrix Lestrange.

Sirius made a series of thunderous growling noises that kept starting and stopping, clearly his terror kept trying to break off how much he wanted to take her head off with or without a wand.

She shrieked what they'd found, back Harry backed his group into the nearest door and shouted colloportus.

A smash meant he'd done it in time, but then a man's voice shouted it didn't matter, there were other ways in.

James could feel his breaths stuttering out in sharp gasps, 'they're pinned down, they don't have a chance to run anymore-' his mind all to happily informed him.

'Shut up,' he fought hard not to shout out loud.

Harry began darting around to all available doors and repeating the spell, encouraging Luna to help, but they only made it half way through when she filled the room with a cry of pain.

James couldn't quite scream that as he could all to easily envision Luna, his voice was getting quieter the more this somehow continued to grow worse, fighting back the urge to vomit again the more his vision blurred from worry and still pushing past just to keep going.

Harry turned to see her smashing through a desk and colliding with a wall head first.

Bellatrix came sprinting in, shouting at all of them to get Potter. Harry tried to run out of the room, the prophecy held high over his head, his only thought to keep them away from the others.

Remus hated that was by all technicalities a good plan, Harry being the target because they could look at him and know he was okay, but putting himself in danger like that could never not stop all the air around him, and it's not like he knew that at the time so Harry was still going to hear about this later!

He found himself in the brain room, and Ron came tottering up to his side, still drunkenly laughing about how there were brains in here, and then he summoned one to him.

Lily made a squealing noise that was as much disgust as it was concern for this. "Luna didn't take away his wand!"

James ignored her no matter how much he agreed.

The scene seemed momentarily frozen. Harry, Ginny and Neville and each of the Death Eaters turned in spite of themselves,

"Yes, do please keep being idiots," Remus muttered, his own eyes feeling swollen from widening too much recently.

to watch a brain burst from the green liquid and come shooting right at Ron, ribbons appearing all around it to wrap around Ron who at first kept laughing, as Harry shouted at him to move while darting towards him.

James didn't need to ask why Harry had involuntarily shouted the same thing in here, why he was vibrating all over again in fear for his brother as much as he had been for his sister moments ago. They could all just feel it, this was not going to be a good thing.

Harry didn't know what would happen when that touched Ron, but he didn't want to find out, and didn't get the choice. The brain wrapped all along his forearm with the nasty dripping vines,

Harry tried to dart forward again, to tear the book away because his father wasn't going fast enough and he had to know right now what that thing was doing to Ron, but Sirius intervened faster this time. He caught Harry around the chest and held him fast, fearing if Harry stopped listening and tried to do this himself he'd hurt himself irreparably.

James had hardly hesitated upon Harry's movement, too involved in this himself.

and Ron at once began screaming in pain for it to stop. Harry tried to cut it away with the Diffendo spell, but it had no affect, and the tentacles kept spiraling farther up Ron's arm.

Ginny screamed that would suffocate him, but a stunner caught her in the chest and she fell to the floor unconscious.

Harry made a desperate noise, still struggling to get away from Sirius, but to where even he didn't know. It was too much, it all felt like a nightmare that wasn't ending, and still the worst hadn't happened, he could feel how hot his face was and how painful everything in him burned saying something terrible was going to happen, something that wasn't going to be just a spell.

Neville tried, waving his wand around and shouting stuebfy, but nothing happened.

Remus had never actually wanted to know what would happen if you try to use a stunning spell without pronouncing it correctly!

One of the Death Eaters tried stunning him, but Neville ducked by inches. Now it was only the two of them, against the five Death Eaters. One tried shooting a white blast at Harry that instead left a crater behind him when he ducked.

"Gah, how is that helping them not break the thing!" Sirius was feeling so incoherent he wasn't even sure if that was spoken in English.

Harry ran for it. His only thought in mind to get these Death Eaters away from his friends, he only hoped Neville would stay behind and help Ron as he finally darted out of the room with the prophecy clearly in sight and only held slight relief he could hear them all chasing him. Then his feet weren't below him anymore.

He was crashing down, hitting every steep stone step until he found himself sprawled below the dais in the stone arch room.

Harry placed his hand on his abused rib cage, still feeling the echo of that pain as it was vividly reminded to him, but that was nothing in comparison to the torment just behind his eyes. He had known from the moment he'd first been in this room it would not mean anything good for him, now he was standing more alone than ever. That should have been a good thing, there was no one in there to get hurt but him.

Hearing approach, he at once got to his feet and backed up so that he was now standing right in front of the veil as the Death Eaters circled below him, one bleeding rather badly, and Harry saw Dolohov had been freed of his Body-Bind Curse.

Lily bit back yet more curses for the fact they just had to be right about that, and yet she still found it in her to plead it wasn't important for Harry to learn a lesson there, she was hardly holding herself together listening to this, afterwards the worst thing she could stand to hear of him in again was Crookshanks attacking him.

Malfoy stepped forward, pulling off his mask to speak to Harry's face this race was done, now be a good boy and hand over that prophecy.

"Whoever said he wanted to be a good boy?" Sirius said distractedly, though James felt himself breathe easier just for a second at Sirius still managing to say his stupid jokes even in the face of all that. It was just a little easier picturing Sirius saying that to Lucius than ten wands pointed on his lone child.

Harry desperately bargained to let the others ago and he'd do just that.

Lucius just laughed, telling him he was not in the position to be making demands being surrounded as he was and all alone.

From above came the shout he wasn't alone!

Neville came racing down the steps from the brain room, still trying to use Hermione's wand to stun someone.

"I mean, credit to the kid, but I'm about to knock his lights out for not doing the smart thing and staying where he's useful! Ron needed him more than Harry did!" Remus half shouted half whispered, the unbearable scenario going through his head the Order had long since vanished and wouldn't realize something was wrong until it was too late...

Harry couldn't really be mad though, he was as touched as he was worried now, though he wouldn't have believed that possible moments ago.

Harry tried to shout at him to go back, but he was caught before he could do any such thing. Several Death Eaters laughed as he struggled to get away, Malfoy jeering at least Longbottom's grandmother would not find his death a shock, she was used to losing family to their cause.

It didn't feel real, James saying that with such anger he well could have murdered someone on the spot, but at the same time speaking as if about Neville. Sometimes Lily still couldn't believe there was anyone out there who would really do something like this no matter how many times she'd seen evidence herself of it happening.

Bellatrix perked up at his last name, mentioning she'd had the pleasure of meeting his parents.

"How dare she mock him for that!" Lily said, fury nearly beyond the words.

Neville shouted back he was aware, and then Bellatrix used Crucio on him.

James whispered, feeling as close to tears as if that were Sirius again, or Harry, or anyone he cared about. He could see Alice and Franks face, know their pain as one who'd been forced to hear his own child through that torment, and it killed something inside of him to force this upon yet another, to even hear about this!

Malfoy told Potter he'd let her continue until he gave up that prophecy, and despite Neville shouting at him not to, Harry made to step forward to do just that when another door swung open, and Kingsley, Tonks, Moody, Lupin, and Sirius came charging in.***

James only felt an instant of relief before Harry started screaming anew.

"No!" Harry hissed, his eyes burning with something they'd only seen once before. "No, no, no! Sirius isn't supposed to be there, he was only there because I was!"

Remus felt such a wave of vertigo he nearly fell right over. He couldn't help it, he remembered Harry screaming those exact words days ago when he'd thought Sirius was going to be Kissed.

Now, there was no Patronus charm to save him, only a luck and skill that would be tarnished after what he'd been through...

"Don't be stupid Harry," Sirius scoffed at such a reaction. "I can take care of myself just fine, did you really think I'd sit back if even for a second I heard what you'd gotten yourself up to!"

"But-"

"No," Sirius snapped with just as much force as Harry just had. "Don't want to hear it! You went out there for me, now I'm doing the same for you, you don't get to tell me what's right or wrong about that under any circumstances."

Harry could feel it, that hot burn telling him Hermione was right, he should have listened to her, because something unforgivable was going to happen now!

James, honestly agreed with Harry. They still didn't even know how Sirius was, how much damage Voldemort had done to him before he'd gotten away, now he was barreling right back into a fight! The idiot was going to get himself killed, as if they hadn't feared that enough recently! Yet at the same time he'd never been more grateful to his brother, he certainly understood why he was doing it for the exact same reason he would right now.

Distracted at once by the Orders arrival, Neville managed to get himself away and Harry ducked down beside him as duels erupted all around them. Harry asked how Ron was, and Neville only said he was still fighting that brain thing when he'd left.

"That's not remotely a helpful answer," Lily said faintly, far more concerned with that lot than her boys who she was well aware could take care of themselves. She could still picture Ron suffocating by the time Harry got back to him, Hermione dying from internal bleeding, who knew if something worse was happening to Ginny and Luna while no one was looking out for them!

The stone floor gained a crater inches beside them, chunks flying everywhere, and before either could duck away from more, an arm seized Harry by the throat and demanded the prophecy from him.

Through watering eyes Harry watched Sirius dueling with a Death Eater ten feet away, their wands not even visible from the speed of their spells,

James tried to find some comfort in that even as he shifted anxiously a bit more. Sirius was up and fighting, his ordeal with Voldemort hadn't seemed to leave any lasting harm if he was already dueling with the skill James knew so well, but perhaps he still would have been better suited to be getting Harry out of there! Then again, he probably wouldn't have even recognized Sirius if he heard he was trying to avoid a fight for even a second.

Kingsley was fighting two at once; Tonks, still halfway up the tiered seats, was firing spells down at Bellatrix - none seemed to realize Harry was slowly dying.

James nearly ripped the page out in frustration, this was so much worse than if he could have just been seeing this! He didn't understand why Harry hadn't mentioned Remus just now! It was of course possible he was just behind somewhere Harry couldn't see, but James was convinced he wasn't going to breathe again until he could finally leave this place altogether!

So Neville lunged forward and shoved Hermione's wand through the eye hole.

"There's thinking on your feet!" Remus said faintly.

Harry was released, and whirled around to use stupefy.

The Death Eater had only the time to remove his face and be recognized as Macnair with one eye swollen shut before he fell over.

"Hope he has to have that bloody removed," Sirius got out through gritted teeth, honestly wishing some things couldn't be magically fixed right now.

Harry thanked Neville as he kept watching Sirius still in the heat of his fight,

Sirius nodded in approval, still shifting restlessly as hearing it wasn't fighting off the urge he needed to be doing that now, but at least it seemed to put his friends at ease for a moment, hearing him still on his feet and dueling made it clear he wasn't irreparably injured from his ordeal.

then Harry's foot slipped and he nearly crashed to the ground from slipping on Moody's magical eye.

Lily did scream then, she couldn't help it. There weren't words anymore, only curses she couldn't hope to use, and pent up emotion she needed some way to vent.

Its owner was lying on his side, bleeding from the head,

James couldn't blame his wife, he was fighting off the urge to scream all this as well though it kept coming out more as a whisper. Not Moody! If he was already down, how well was that supposed to spell out for the others, now both of his brothers and his son were all in there!

and the one who'd done it, Dolohov, turned his attention on the two boys and shouted Tarantellgra.

Neville at once fell over, his feet doing a frenzied, uncontrolled movement.

Remus managed to find that a curse and a blessing, at least they were still only trying to immobilize the kids, he'd feared now that the Order had arrived they'd be trying more than ever to get that way from Harry by any means!

He turned on Harry and began the same slashing movement he'd used on Hermione,

James's heart stopped, it took every last drop of his willpower and forcing himself not to hear the other's cry of shock as he told;

but Harry was one second faster and managed Protego before the bright flame went for his face. He felt as if a blunt knife knocked him off his feet and he was thrown across Neville's jerking legs, but his Shield Charm had fielded the worst effects.

Harry wanted to breathe easier, now that he knew the spell could be blocked by something like a shield charm he felt Hermione's chances for survival went up, though he kept brushing his fingers against his face where he was sure he'd just escaped death again.

Dolohov instead tried to summon the prophecy to him, but then Sirius was there, ramming his shoulder into the Death Eater and knocking him off even as he kept his own duel up.

Lily was fighting back so many impulses in these moments, to cling her child to her, both his infant self and the adult, she wanted them both under her arms where she could secure their future right now. To stop James from continuing while also taking that and finishing this herself. To send a stream of curses and constantly reminding herself it would do no good. Now she wanted Remus and Sirius right behind her! She didn't care how good a fighters they were, there was no telling what condition both were in, and neither would consider themselves when jumping in front of those spells for those kids.

Dolohov tried to turn on Sirius's now unprotected back, bringing his wand up for the slashing spell another time,

"He really needs to stop with that!" Sirius snarled in disgust, his not so subtle rumbling growls growing louder every second as he wanted to rip this one's whole arm off for continuously trying to use that on his loved ones, even if he had no regrets taking this instead of Harry.

Harry was still faster though, using Petrificus Totalus on him again, and again the man's limbs all snapped together and he fell to the floor at the same time Sirius finally took his own down with a stunner.

Sirius turned to Harry, sparing the moment to congratulate him before telling him to- they both ducked at a green light passing over Sirius's head.

James couldn't help snarling in outrage, that flash of green suddenly all he could see for a moment, the light in Lily's eyes fading, the same color to take away Sirius by a breath!

Across the room, Tonks was falling limply down the stone steps while Bellatrix was laughing triumphantly.

Harry made a ragged noise as yet more people went down around him, because of him, and he tried to cling even tighter to Sirius now, his grip turning bruising as he held onto his arm.

Sirius only gave him an absent pat, shifting his weight so restlessly Harry could hardly keep a grip on him even as he acted like his life depended on it.

Sirius told Harry to take the prophecy, grab Neville and run while darting forward to meet Bellatrix.

Remus closed his eyes tight, hating to hear the echo of James' final words to his wife in that moment as surely that was just a coincidence, everything was going to be fine! He quickly snapped them back open to focus on Sirius and James, his friends, nothing was going to happen to them now.

Harry didn't see what happened next as Kingsley darted in the way fighting Rookwood, so he turned back to Neville and ducked yet another green blast.

The only thing stopping Lily from vomiting at the image was that it hadn't connected, it never would again, because this time she hadn't been there to stop it, so Harry would be safe from this.

Had Neville though? The Order? It would be an honest miracle if everyone came out of this unscathed...

Harry asked if Neville could stand, but his uncontrollable legs wouldn't allow this, so Harry instead told Neville to put his arm around Harry.

Sirius dislodged Harry from him again by running his hands through his hair frantically, he couldn't believe no one had ever taught Harry 'Finite' or that he was forgetting about the spell right now!

Neville did so, but it did nothing to help them get back up the steps, while out of nowhere someone tackled Harry from behind and jabbed their wand into his back demanding the prophecy from him.

'He's not going to get hurt, nothing happened to him' James kept chanting in his head, the only mantra he could use to make words keep coming out.

Harry recognized Malfoy's voice, so chose to toss the prophecy to Neville instead who only just caught it. While he'd been distracted watching it's progress, Harry turned his wand over his shoulder and shouted Impedimenta, and Malfoy was off of him again. When he turned to see, Sirius and Bellatrix were now on top of the dais dueling.

That wasn't working so well whenever James had to flip focus to one of his friends. Sirius finally got so agitated he jumped to his feet, moving swiftly across the room as if he were in a duel now, his body finally unable to remain immobile while Harry did the opposite. Now that Sirius was out of reach, he froze over, as if he could no longer hear or feel anything around him, he couldn't understand why Sirius had left him right now...

Malfoy had recovered and turned his wand back on Harry, but Lupin jumped between them first.

James couldn't help a pitiful noise of relief for just a moment, Remus hadn't been mentioned since he'd come storming in and in the back of his mind where Sirius and Harry weren't struggling to fight he'd feared something had happened to Moony the moment he'd come in. How soon was it to a full moon, had one just ended? He had no answer for the state he was fighting in anymore than Sirius, but he tried to give his mind an instant of relief Remus may have darted off to check on the other kids before running into this fray.

He shouted over his shoulder for Harry to round up the others and go,

"They're clearly trying!" Lily told him in a 'you're not helping voice!'

Remus looked terrified for a new kind of reason, like Lily was going to curse him next if he didn't do something useful soon.

before engaging Malfoy in a duel, and Harry did try.

He stuffed the prophecy into Neville's robes so they'd both have their arms to try and heave up the steep steps, but they only made it up two with heaving effort when Neville's robes ripped, the little glass ball fell free, and smashed back down below.

James made such a powerful noise his throat actually hurt, but he still didn't stop. He'd care about that later, they'd find some other way to hear that thing, he had to keep his priority and hear of his son out of there first!

Even as they watched a spectral figure floated out, unrecognizable in its astral form, but amidst the curses around them, not a word was heard before it too dissolved.

Sirius stamped his foot so hard in frustration he worried for a moment it was going to sink right through the floor, but it didn't stop his movement. He was thinking the exact same as the others, they'd just have to hunt down this Seer who'd given the prophecy, Merlin he'd go and hunt down his Aunt Misapinoa, speak to anyone in his family again for even the inkling of a clue on where to hear this thing, but that was later. They'd worry about that when Harry was safe again.

Neville began apologizing, but Harry said it didn't matter how, they still had to-

Neville's face suddenly looked transported as he shouted over Harry's shoulder, Dubbledore.

"Oh!" James felt such a head rush he nearly fell over in surprise.

"Thank Merlin, or Dumbledore or-" Remus cut himself off with a near hysterical giggle, their shaking of fright from before now more relieved than anything, those Death Eaters stood no chance now! Here they'd all been worried Voldemort might pop back in any moment, now the opposite had happened!

Their sincerity of everything was going to be okay now was so much, none noticed Harry wasn't joining in. Sirius least of all as he was now jumping around with excitement more than anything he could haul Harry out of there and finally something could go right.

Harry asked what?

"Broken nose or not, there's not a lot of translations for that word," Lily said, still high off her relief that her voice came out as wobbly as if she'd really started crying that everything was going to be okay now.

He turned and saw Dumbledore standing in the doorway, an electric energy seemed to pulse around him, and Harry at once knew they were saved.

Harry didn't feel that now. He searched for it, in the recesses of his memories, but there was no trace of such a powerful feeling except the numbing cold that was sapping everything from him, all his mind could focus on was watching Sirius, moving around with such excitement he looked like he was going to start dancing in here like he had been in such a more deadly situation all those years ago.

With one wave of his wand he seemed to catch all the Death Eater's as if in a giant fishing net, drawing them all tightly yet invisibly bound together, the only two left still fighting were Sirius and Bellatrix up on the dais; Sirius was laughing at her.

"I'm going to kill Dumbledore," Lily said with indulgent exasperation. He should have grabbed Bellatrix first if his goal was simply to round up these Death Eater's, why let Sirius continue goofing off as he clearly was now when he was the one who needed to get out of there the most before anyone else showed up.

He taunted she could do better than that as he ducked a red blast of light.

"Taunts to your last breath, I swear," Remus huffed, scowling lightly at the book and him alternatively. He hadn't personally ever dueled Bellatrix, but she wasn't one to be trifled with no matter how good Sirius was, she'd proved that in the few seconds she'd been around Harry and his friends.

She responded by managing to hit him in the chest with her next, and the laughter hadn't quite died from his face as his eyes widened with shock.

Sirius' expression was mocking that in here, Remus noticed as his head whipped to him so fast there was an uncomfortable snapping noise. Sirius was covering his chest and looking genuinely offended he'd been struck while that pompous smile was still in place.

James only half glanced up at him, his throat still raw and sore from all this frustration he had not the heart for telling his brother what a cocky idiot he was for getting caught. It bothered him most of all Harry hadn't noted what color that flash of light was that hit him, but the first he'd dodged had simply been a stunner, so likely it was just that again.

Harry released Neville and ran forward, watching as it seemed to take Sirius ages to fall backwards through the veil.

James froze, the whole room went still as four pairs of eyes just watched this act take place. It was eerie, Sirius found himself thinking as he went rigid, that animation finally ceasing in him as James kept going with a heavy twitch that Sirius wanted to brush off but couldn't find the words for.

Sirius did not reappear.

James's voice was taking on a rather hard edge, his eyes flat with disbelief. Of course he hadn't, his mind reasoned, he was stunned when he fell into that, someone just had to pull him back out!

Harry shouted for Sirius as he ran for the steps, but then Lupin caught him, holding him back.

Sirius started shaking then, so powerfully his wand fell from his limp fingers and his whole body went an unnatural color from shock. He didn't like that reaction! Why would Remus stop Harry instead of helping him!?

No matter how hard Harry fought to get away, how loudly he shouted, Lupin didn't let go, telling Harry Sirius was gone.

As if in slow motion, Harry's life tumbled from his hands and was left upon the ground while James moved.

For just a second, Harry watched it in real time. Sirius' knees buckled, and he fell back, but in that moment, James was there, catching him before he hit the ground.

"No..."

HPHPHPHP

* Take that Snape! You weren't the first Death Eater to say that! ...I don't know why I cracked up laughing rereading the series and coming across this line, just thought I'd share the moment so you wouldn't hate me for one second.

** I know I'm calling for a bit of suspension of disbelief here with his Prophecy knowledge, which is rude of me considering I try to make sense of this story and now I'm doing the opposite, so putting this kind of information on Sirius is a bit of a long shot; but I can't help myself, I need some way to explain all this in fic, and Dumbledore does a meh job of it, and Sirius is the only one with any connections that could also claim to even just vaguely know about these things. Take heart I refused to do this for other things like the Horcruxes? Those'll be much more fun to watch them struggle along to understand, but the prophecies just tie back too well with the third book for me to pass up.

***I'll admit it here guys, the movie really had a much more bamf entrance for this. Sirius punching Lucius in the face really is an iconic moment.

#The LIfe that Never LIved #Harry Potter #fanfiction #reading the books #OotP #Marauders #Sirius black #James Potter #Remus lupin #Lily Potter #jilly

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averagesmw · 4 years ago

Text

Merula Snyde x MC- Not now, not ever

Game: Harry Potter Hogwarts Mystery

____________________

The year was 1997, a second wizarding war was in full effect thanks to the resurrection of the dark lord Voldemort, the incompetence of the Ministry, and worst of all, Dumbledore's death

These were truly dark times for the world of magic, and even worse for a certain witch who was related to Death Eaters

Merula Snyde had a relatively peaceful life after graduating Hogwarts in 1991, but as soon as the mass breakout in Azkaban happened, she became a target. Turns out her family wanted her back and assist in the war

Over the course of seven years, and thanks to the influence of a certain student, Merula's views changed quite a lot, and these changes did not align with the Death Eaters's philosophy

Hence why she was on the run, not even getting a place to call her own for the moment. Her campaign to remain hidden led her to a pub, just to take a small break to eat and drink something

Currently, she was looking out the window, contemplating the rain that covered the seemingly empty streets, when a waitress approached her table with a butterbeer in her hand

"Your order, miss"

Confused, she turned to see the woman

"I didn't ask for this"

"Our client over there ordered it for you"

She pointed at someone sitting by themselves, with a trenchcoat that covered most features of their figure, thus forcing Merula to stand up and approach them, her wand at the ready

"Nobody just invites a drink like that. Do I know you?"

This made the figure turn around, making Merula step back in shock, her tired purple eyes wide as the figure smiled at her

"I believe you do, yes"

The young woman couldn't believe what she was seeing. It was the curse breaker themselves, just a bit older and a few more scars, but still them

"...L/N? Y/N L/N?"

They smiled upon hearing their name being said

"Hello, Merula"

She was speechless. It had been years since they last wrote and even more since they last saw each other

It was too good to be true if they just happened to be in the same pub she was using to rest. And so, her mistrust got the better of her

"How do I know it's not someone using a Polyjuice potion?"

The coated person laughed at this, a sound that was different from what she remembered but felt just the same somehow

"Pfft. Come on, you know how awful I am at making potions"

"...It is you"

The curse breaker smiled and suggested to get a table together. While still somewhat reluctant, Merula took a bit to comply, but eventually led them to the table she was using

Now, they were sharing a drink while looking out the window. Or at least Y/N was, Merula's distinct eyes were fixed on them

The scars they had received through the years. While not alarmingly noticeable for someone normal, Merula spotted it right away

She had been running away from this war this entire time, but Y/N? They had been risking their neck out there. Legilimency wasn't needed to guess that

It wasn't long until they noticed her remaining completely silent while staring at them

"What?"

"It's just that...you look terrible. What have you been doing?"

Y/N laughed nervously, scratching the back of their neck

"Saving as many people as I can. There isn't much I can do to end this war, but I can reduce the fallout"

Yes, at the cost of your own health"

"Careful Merula, that almost sounded like you cared about me"

Y/N laughed at this and for a while, she couldn't help but chuckle at this. At least their sense of humor was still intact... although she wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not

"And you? I take it you've been 'traveling' a lot?"

Merula nodded slightly while taking a sip from her drink, brushing it off

"Maybe I do. It doesn't matter"

Then, Y/N leaned closer to her

"Actually, that's why I'm here"

This statement caught her attention, making her look at them

"What do you mean, L/N?"

"I'm here to help you, Merula"

This confirmed some of her theories. Y/N L/N has always been a busy person, so it wasn't a coincidence to just find them in the same pub she was in, but the reason for it wasn't the one she suspected

And she wasn't exactly fond of that

"Excuse you? You've been looking for me instead of helping the people that actually need you?"

"That is precisely what I'm doing, helping"

The witch let out an angry huff. She didn't like what she was hearing and it wasn't getting any better either

"You must've been hit with too many charms. I don't need your help, L/N"

Just after saying that, she finished what was left of her drink and got up

"Although I appreciate the sentiment"

She didn't even let the curse breaker explain themselves, although that might have been for the better. With that, she left the establishment and headed back to the streets under the disguise of the rain that was still hitting the scene

Merula might have left them at the pub, but Y/N was still in her thoughts. That student that earned her disdain during their first years at Hogwarts, that selfish, arrogant magic user that...

...that chose to give her a songbook for Christmas, and that same student that wouldn't leave her side when she got hit by the Cruciatus curse

Even the same person that dragged her to a massive party when they graduated. She hated to admit it, but it was one of her fondest memories

But unfortunately, things change, and as she arrived at the room she had been using to stay for the night, that became clear to her. In this small, wooden room she took comfort by knowing that she would be safe enough to keep moving the next morning

And so, Merula got in her bed, not even changing her clothes, for she was just too tired to do anything else for the day

Or at least that was the plan until the door squeaked opened, that eerie sound was all she needed to grab her wand by the nightstand and aim it at the intruders, only to be blasted into the wall by them, her precious weapon falling to the floor as a result

She found herself unable to talk but was able to see her attackers, the same people she was running away from. Those masks, the robes, no...

They were Death Eaters, and they had found her

"You can't run away forever, Merula Snyde"

"Watch... me..." She struggled to even talk, but her hatred for them was far greater

"This is a waste of time, I'll end her now"

One of these hooded assailants moved closer, stopped only by the other one

"We're instructed to bring her back alive"

"Fine..."

Both of them were now about to capture her, Fear crawled up Merula's spine at the sight of this. She didn't want to be dragged into this, or forced to take others' lives away just because someone ordered her to

Merula didn't even care about this war, yet she was also suffering because of it. Fortunately, the commotion had been loud enough

"Confringo!"

Suddenly, a small explosion took place in the room that sent one of the Death Eaters out of the way with brutal force by an unseen third party. The other turned to face them immediately after this

"Expelliarmus!"

A blast of red energy snatched the wizard's wand away from him and as the other stood back up, a final jinx was used

"Flipendo Maxima!"

With that, both of the Death Eaters were thrown out the window of the already unstable room and back into the streets, with the impact strong enough to break one of their wands upon landing.

It all happened so fast, Merula didn't even see what was happening, only when she fell to the floor was she able to understand

As for the Death Eaters, they stood back up, wounded and caught off-guard by this merciless assault on them

In front of them, was a single person in a trenchcoat, but their smile was replaced with a stern glare

One of the dark wizards leaned on the other's shoulder to stand up. The other had his wand pointed at them.

"You will regret this, Y/N L/N"

"Not nearly as much as you if you mess with her again"

Predicting an attack from the enemy, the curse breaker struck first, making the hand of the Death Eater started to grow spikes in an awfully uncomfortable manner, forcing him to stop his actions

Seeing Merula running back into the rainy alleyway with her hand at the ready, Y/N standing in front of them, and the poor conditions the dark wizards were in at the moment, there was only one option

To apparate

And escape they did, not wanting to spend another second in their presence

And so, it was just Merula, Y/N, and the rain

"What are you doing here?" She faced them with an unsure look on her

She was of course, happy to see them, but was more than surprised by what taken place just now

"I heard the commotion and came to see what was happening. Not that you needed the assistance, of course"

That was one way to put it. Merula wasn't sure of what would have happened if Y/N hadn't shown up, maybe she would break free from the spell and retaliate, or the Death Eaters would take her away after an intense, brutal fight

It was so unclear, thankfully, it wasn't something she had to find out

"...Thank you"

This sentence caught Y/N by surprise, but they chose not to tease her about it. Instead, they just nodded

"Don't mention it"

They were about to leave when the witch's voice gained their attention once again

"...Can I ask you something?"

"Of course"

She gathered the courage she needed to look at the curse-breaker straight in the eyes

"Why me?"

"Beg your pardon?"

"You could be out there helping to minimize the damage caused by the war, but instead you chose to come to my rescue. Why?"

Y/N stored their wand. If it weren't for the rain making it difficult to see, she could have sworn that she saw them smile at the question

"Because I wanted to give you a reminder"

Knowing where the conversation was heading, they approached her, abandoning the alleyway to stand under the roof of the small building, shielding them from the rain

"A reminder of what?"

"That not everyone is out to get your head"

It was relieving to hear that, but even more, than it was just proven to her, but her gut told her that there was something else in there, hidden meaning or request, and she had a good idea of what was it

"So what, you're expecting me to join your little order and fight my parents?"

"No, you've fought more than enough for a lifetime. I just want you to rest and be safe"

That... that had to be the most caring thing anyone had ever said to her, Merula couldn't even keep up the act at this point

"And what about you?"

"I still have a few things to do, but as soon as I'm done, I'll come back you"

Y/N took a couple of steps closer to her, placing a hand on her shoulder

"Because, contrary to what you believe, I do care about you. I never left your side at Hogwarts, I won't start now"

Merula looked down, even started sobbing a little, but before Y/N could do anything, she looked up at them, with tears in her violet eyes

Y/N wasn't looking at the hardened Slytherin that always seemed to antagonize them

They were looking at the woman who was tired of running away and paying an unfair price for making her own decisions

That same woman that needed just a hint of light to keep going

"...Promise it"

Y/N got a hold of her hand to make her look at them. While they were smiling, she could tell it wasn't the usual friendly or goofy smile

This was different

"Merula Snyde, you have my word that I won't ever leave your side, no matter what"

There was no hesitation or weakness in their voice, and as their eyes looked at her the entire time, it became clear to Merula that Y/N truly meant every single word they said

An do, she responded with the first thing that came to her mind, a hug

"Thank you..."

She muttered, burying her head on their shoulder. This caught the curse-breaker by surprise, but they hugged her as soon as they regained their composure

They remained like that for a minute, no word or thought came out, just this single gesture

"Come on. I know a place where you can rest without getting assassinated"

Merula broke embrace to punch them in the shoulder, making both of them laugh a little

"I missed you too"

#merula snyde #Jacob's sibling x Merula #mc hogwarts mystery #hogwarts mystery

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wren-fell · 4 years ago

Text

Stuck in Borderland

Decided to post my Alice in Borderland fic. The main character is my oc Sayaka, and all other characters belong to Haro Aso.

Warnings: language, violence

Length: ~3000 words

Chapter 1: Welcome to the Beach

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Sayaka walked through the doorway, and the red grid flashed for a second after she passed. She glanced over her shoulder with a frown, no turning back.

She picked up a phone on the table in the center of the room and the screen lit up white. Registration complete, the game will commence in 5 minutes. With a deep breath she closed her eyes, just another game… that’s all it is.

“Just do it quickly you’ll be fine!”

“Hurry the fuck up we only have 10 more minutes!”

“I’m trying!” The girl wailed as she waited on the other side of the platform, a row of swinging saws and blades blocking her from the other side where two others were.

“Just go!” A guy at the platform behind her screamed.

“Fine!” She drew in a deep breath and took off running across the bridge. She was halfway across with no incident when a saw came rising out of the floor. The girl screamed and jumped over it, but when she landed the floor gave way and she fell into the electrified water below. There was a sickening crackle and a scream, then nothing.

The five remaining participants were all silent until the time chime rang out. There are 7 minutes remaining.

“Alright, I’m going next!” A guy screamed pushing Sayaka to the side and stepped forward on the platform.

He drew in a deep breath and ran across. He was doing fine, but as he came up to where the saw in the ground was he hesitated.

“Don’t jump!” Sayaka yelled.

“What? Are you fucking crazy!?” He snapped over his shoulder.

“Don’t jump! If you do you’ll go into the water! If you keep running straight you’ll be fine!”

He looked from her to the saw and let out a scream, “you better be right about this!” Running forward he closed his eyes waiting for the saw to chop off his legs, but as he was just about to run into it, it receded into the ground.

Sayaka sighed, “thank god that was right…”

“How did you know?” the man with the glasses standing next to her asked. She glanced at him and smiled.

“The two people that died both died from falling into the water not the saws. The saws have sensors that make them retract when someone is about to touch it, but if you jump the floor is unstable and will give way,” she replied.

Two minutes remaining. She looked down at the phone as the voice rang out, “we should get across.”

Sayaka and the man with glasses walked across with no saws even coming close to cutting them, and as the clock began to count down thirty seconds they stepped into the circle on the second platform. At the end of the countdown everyone’s phones lit up.

Congratulations. Game cleared. A four day visa has been issued to all players.

“4 of Diamonds done,” Sayaka sighed closing her eyes and leaning her elbows on her knees.

“That was very impressive.”

Sayaka raised her head to look at the man with the glasses, and rubbed the back of her head, “Well, you really start to pay attention when people die I guess.”

“I’m with a group that’s trying to win this game. I think you’d be a good addition,” he added. Sayaka hesitated she had only met one other person so far in the borderlands she had spent extra time with, but they had died fairly quickly and she’d been alone since. Although, winning and leaving this world was a very tempting offer.

“Come with us we’ll introduce you to our leader,” he said waving a hand and she was surrounded by the other two men from the game. She hesitated, but started walking when she noticed the guns poking out of their pockets. Where did they even get guns?

Sayaka was led to an old beat up corvette outside where they tucked her in the backseat between the two men with guns. This was starting to feel less like an introduction and more like a kidnapping. They squealed the tires as they tore of the parking lot and down the road towards the river.

Eventually they pulled up in front of a large beach club that she recognized. Her parents used to take her and her sister here when they were kids, except now it looks slightly more rundown and Beach in red spray paint was scrawled across the original sign. But, the most interesting thing about the old club was that it seemed to be the only building in Tokyo that still had electricity aside from the game arenas.

“Welcome to the Beach, follow me,” the man with glasses ordered as he got out of the car.

Sayaka followed him inside where there were hundreds of people wearing swimsuits and running around without a care in the world.

“What the fuck did I get myself into?” She whispered.

The man with glasses led her upstairs to a room in the main building of the club where 8 other people in swimsuits sat at a table and you couldn’t hear the pounding music.

“Kuzuryu. Welcome back, have you found us a new member?” A man with sunglasses and long hair declared waving his arms.

“Yes, she did exceptionally well in the 4 of Diamonds game. I think she could make a good addition,” Kuzuryu said handing the Diamonds card to him.

“Wonderful! My name is Hatter and welcome to the beach! What’s your name beautiful?” The way he said beautiful and peered over the top of his sunglasses made her stiffen.

“Sayaka Umino.”

“Sayaka, the beach is a haven! I made this place so we could all have hope that one day we’ll get out of here and all go home! But, we all must work together to make that dream a reality,” he paused and stood up from his chair to wave his hands dramatically at the window, “hope! Hope is what this place is for, so we can all survive these terrible games! The beach is a place where you can do anything your heart desires as long as you follow the rules.”

There was another pause and Sayaka foolishly opened her mouth, “what are the rules?”

“I’m so glad you asked!” Hatter turned quickly his robe flaring dramatically behind him, “Rule #1: Always wear a bathing suit!”

“Why?” The question came out of her mouth before she could stop it and she stiffened as she waited for the response.

“You can’t hide a weapon in bathing suits! Only militants are allowed to carry weapons, so you must wear a bathing suit.” Sayaka pouted, no thank you.

“Rule #2 you are free to live your life however you want here. Drugs, sex, alcohol, it doesn’t matter! You can do whatever you want!” Hatter turned dramatically waving at the window again at all the people partying outside. Sayaka furrowed her eyebrows, this place sounded more like a nightmare than paradise.

“And rule #3?”

There was a long pause and a heavy silence hung in the room. Hatter leaned closer to the window resting his hands on the sill, “Rule #3 is…” he turned around to look at her, “death to all traitors.”

Sayaka drew in a sharp breath through her nose as she stared at him. One of the guys by the wall shifted his Ak-15 and a sadistic smile spread on his face. Guess me saying no makes me a traitor.

“So? Sayaka what do you say?” Hatter asked taking a step towards her and holding his arms out.

“Sure, I’ll join…” she replied quietly.

“SPLENDID!” Hatter’s exclamation made her jump as he turned around back to the table of people, “Ann please take Sayaka to get a bathing suit and get her wristband.”

“Yes Hatter,” a woman with short black hair and sunglasses stood up from the table and headed to the door, “follow me.”

“Welcome to the beach Sayaka, and enjoy!” Hatter called as she walked towards the door.

“Thanks…” she mumbled and followed Ann out.

Ann led Sayaka downstairs to the gift shop, and bent down to lift the metal gate up before turning sharply to Sayaka, “pick one.”

Sayaka walked through the shop with a frown. Most of the swimsuits for women were skimpy bikinis, and judging by Hatter’s speech about what you could do at the beach she could see why. She settled on a teal one-shoulder bikini, with a black stripe on the top and bottom, and a pair of black board shorts. At the entrance to the shop Ann handed her a red wristband.

“This is your room. Please go up and change. Welcome to the beach,” Ann said quietly before walking away.

Sayaka sighed, “guess this is where I’m staying now,” she muttered as she headed to her room.

Sayaka went up to her room on the third floor and changed before heading back downstairs to investigate her new home.

Hatter wasn’t joking you could really do whatever you wanted at the beach, it was like one big frat party. Everyone was either dancing, drinking, smoking, or sloppily making out in plain sight, among other things… Cringing as she walked past a particular corner of the hotel with multiple couples, if this is what hope looks like I’m not sure I want any part of it... But, that thought didn’t last long when she stumbled upon the dining room. Where the hotel would have usually held dinner or breakfast service was transformed into an elaborate buffet piled high with food, most likely for the returning players of the evening.

Sayaka could literally feel her mouth water. In the two weeks she’d been in the borderland all she’d been able to eat was snacks from a gas station and some questionable cans of vegetables. She felt her stomach rumble as she walked up to the buffet and grabbed a plate.

“Where to start?” She piled her plate high with steak, lo mein, dumplings, and BBQ, “I don’t care where this came from, I don’t care how they got it, I just want to stuff my face,” she cooed as she settled down at a table.

Sayaka sat and ate closing her eyes at the heavenly taste of real food for the first time in weeks, “if this is what hope is maybe Hatter isn’t wrong,” she sighed. She finished her first plate of food and leaned back in her chair with her eyes closed. The blaring bass of the music seemed to fade away for a minute and this was all there was, Sayaka sitting there with food in her stomach and feeling relatively safe. But, that moment of bliss was interrupted by a voice.

“Well hello there beautiful, you must be new around here.” Sayaka opened one eye to glance at the boy in swim trunks who had wandered over to her table. He placed a hand on the table and leaned over way too close to Sayaka’s face.

Shrinking back in her chair Sayaka pouted, “yea. I’m new. Excuse me I’m going to get more food,” she turned away from the boy as she got out of her chair, snatching the plate off the table and heading back to the buffet.

As she started loading her plate again the boy followed her, “aw come on sweetheart there’s way more to do here than just food. Why don’t you come have a drink with me and I’ll show you the ropes?” he cooed, and Sayaka felt a hand slide onto the exposed skin on the small of her back as he leaned over the table to cage her in.

“No thanks not interested,” she mumbled brushing his arm away to sidestep along the buffet.

“Pity. The Beach may have amazing food, but that cannot be the only thing you’d want to do on your last days alive?” He leaned over her again, but this time plucked a piece of BBQ pork off her plate and plopped it into his mouth, “Live like you’re dying baby. Haven’t you heard? We’re all fu—“ He didn’t get to finish his sentence as Sayaka whipped around slamming her fist into his cheek causing him to spit the pork out onto the floor. He landed with a loud thud and stared up at her in absolute shock.

“What the fuck!?”

“Don’t touch my fucking food!” Sayaka snapped.

There was a long pause as the guy scrambled to his feet, “you crazy bitch,” and ran off.

“Hmph…” Sayaka stood a deep frown forming on her face. She glanced over to the side noticing that the room had gotten quiet and everyone was staring at her. She grunted and turned around pushing her plate further onto the table, “made me lose my appetite,” she muttered and heading out of the dining room.

She wandered around the hotel before settling on one of the few beach chairs that wasn’t being “used”. Everyone at the beach was truly living like it was their last day on Earth. Sayaka sighed, I guess because it technically could be.

The pool wasn’t as nice as Sayaka remembered it. This hotel used to be a pristine beach club for its very rich members, but now it was nothing more than a sketchy nightclub. The bass of the techno music made ripples in the water that were barely noticeable around the swarms of people jumping around in it. Their bodies were tightly packed and gyrating together like a wave of humans instead of water.

“Hi.” Sayaka was snapped out of her thoughts when a girl wearing a purple one piece and a side skirt spoke to her.

“Uh, hi,” Sayaka mumbled.

“You’re new huh?” She said. Sayaka nodded, but didn’t speak, “do you mind if I sit? It’s kinda the last chair,” she asked gesturing around to the other occupied beach lounges.

Sayaka hesitated, but moved over and nodded, “sure.”

The girl sat down and leaned over onto her knees before looking up at Sayaka, “my name’s Madoka. What’s yours?” She offered out her hand.

Sayaka watched it for a second before taking it slowly like a stray cat considering a free piece of food, “Sayaka.”

“I’m sorry.”

“What?” Sayaka raised her eyebrows.

“I’m sorry that you’re here,” Madoka glanced at her out of the corner of her eye, “in the borderlands I mean, but…” She paused and let out a sigh, “I can’t say the beach can always be better.”

Sayaka knit her eyebrows together watching her, “what do you mean? I thought this was meant to be the ‘oasis in the desert’,” she made air quotes.

Madoka turned to look at her with a sympathetic look in her gray eyes, “it can be. As long as you follow the rules,” her voice dropped to a whisper.

Almost as if on cue a group of people strolled by the pool with guns slung over their shoulders and hanging by their sides. She recognized some of them from her “introduction meeting”. A bald man with a scar over his eye and made of nothing but solid muscle, a man with tattoos over his face and a katana slung across his back, and the man with the Ak-15 and piercings on his face; along with at least 5 other men and women carrying weapons. They sauntered past the pool made comments to a couple of people and picked up 3 girls who seemed nervous, but happily leaned into the man with the piercings.

“The militants.”

“Hm?” Sayaka turned towards Madoka.

“Those are the militant corp. They maintain…” she paused, “order.”

Sayaka watched the group as they left the pool, “order, huh?”

“Yea… steer clear of them, obey the rules, and this place could be your own personal slice of heaven,” she paused as a loud moan came from one of the girls in the pool, “if that’s your sort of thing…” she mumbled.

Sayaka’s eyes scanned the pool. This certainly wasn’t her idea of heaven. All the food in the world wouldn’t make this heaven even in the borderlands. She had people to get back to this was just temporary. A white spot in the sea of bodies snapped her back to attention. A boy probably not much older than herself was leaning against the doorway wearing a white sweatshirt with the hood pulled over his face. He had been at the meeting too, sitting at the table two seats over from Hatter.

“Madoka.”

“Hm?” She raised her head.

“Who’s that?” Sayaka asked nodding her head slightly in his direction without looking at him again.

Madoka took the hint and passed a glance around the whole pool, so as not to bed suspicious, “that’s Chishiya he’s one of the 9 executive members. They help Hatter make decisions.”

Sayaka cast a glance over his direction again to find that he was gone and she frowned, suspicious little shit.

“Just don’t cause any trouble and you shouldn’t have to deal with them much,” Madoka paused and let out a chuckle, “although, I can’t say you’re off to a good start.”

Sayaka snapped her head around to look at her, “what?”

“I saw you slug the guy who touched your butt in the dining room. Honestly you better get used to that unfortunately happens often, and you don’t want the militants getting involved,” she added glancing back to the door they had disappeared through.

“It wasn’t because he touched my ass…” Sayaka mumbled looking down.

Madoka put her head to the side, “what was it then?”

“He took a piece of food off my plate…” she mumbled.

“What?”

“He took a piece of food off my plate, okay!” Sayaka snapped, “I haven’t eaten actual food in 2 weeks and he comes over all flirty and shit, and takes a piece of BBQ pork off my plate!? No fucking way!”

Madoka fell against the back of the chair laughing hysterically her bun bobbing back and forth.

“What?” Sayaka muttered.

“I can’t believe you punched him over a piece of BBQ!” She wheezed wiping the tears from her eyes.

“I’ve been hungry!” Sayaka replied waving her arms, “you don’t take food away from animals they bite!”

“Oh now you’re an animal!?”

“I just meant you don’t take people’s food! Especially people that haven’t eaten anything, but canned shit since they’ve gotten to this hellhole.”

“Oh some of those canned foods were questionable before the apocalypse now I don’t even know. I can’t believe you ate that!”

“I didn’t have much of a choice!”

“And how did you feel after that?” Madoka asked quirking an eyebrow.

Sayaka grimaced, “I threw up like twice…” she muttered.

Madoka burst out laughing again, while Sayaka pouted her cheeks turning red.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I totally understand I had the same problem before I came to the beach. I ate some food that was frozen and had thawed, and had diarrhea for like 2 days,” Madoka said laughing again.

Sayaka smiled and laughed, “oh god that would suck. We don’t even have working toilets out here!”

“Trust me I know!”

Sayaka and Madoka sat on the beach chair laughing together about their experiences, and at the people around them. Barely acknowledging the red lasers that shot down from the sky in the distance killing those whose visas expired. For a little while it didn’t feel like the beach was sketchy or they were trapped in this hellish borderland. It felt like Sayaka and Madoka were just long time friends who were having fun at a party on a Friday night, and there wasn’t the possibility of death looming over their heads.

#alice in borderland #my writing #This is not puella madoka magica related I just really like those names #will most likely eventually be a chishiya x oc #first time I've posted my writing literally anywhere besides a required course so here it is!#I'm happy to be back writing though #couldn't think of a better title #stuck in borderland

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dettiot · 4 years ago

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Fic: Go With Your Heart 1/6

Go With Your Heart Author: dettiot Rating: T Summary: When the Jedi choose not to train Anakin Skywalker, it sets him on a different path. Thanks to Obi-Wan Kenobi and Queen Amidala, Anakin and his mother come to Naboo to live in freedom. And when his path crosses with Senator Amidala, his life changes again. Notes: This fic has been such an amazing challenge for myself! Writing something so canon divergent and really exploring the changes in Anakin's personality has been really interesting and hard, and I'm really glad I got this chance! I'm really thankful to the anidalaweek Tumblr for sponsoring this event and to my beta frostbitsky.This first chapter helps set up the story. Starting in chapter 2, you'll start seeing the amazing gifs created by queenaryastark in the chapters and on my Tumblr posts of each chapter.

Also available on AO3!

XXX

Anakin: Will I ever see you again? Shmi: What does your heart tell you?

Anakin: I don't know if I'll ever see her again, I wanted to say goodbye. Queen Amidala: We will tell her for you. We are sure her heart goes with you.

XXX The Jedi Temple was full of beautiful, contemplative places like the Room of a Thousand Fountains. Yet tonight, as the sun set on Coruscant, Obi-Wan Kenobi wasn’t there. He was standing on one of the small balconies on an upper level of the Temple, looking out at the view as his mind reeled.

The Council had decided Anakin Skywalker would not be trained as a Jedi.

He still didn’t understand how the Council made such a decision. To turn their backs on Anakin . . and on Master Qui-Gon. His master had believed so much in Anakin. His last thoughts were about the boy, asking Obi-Wan to train him.

If Master Windu or Master Yoda or any other Jedi had asked him to take on a Padawan, Obi-Wan would have refused. What business did he have teaching anyone? An Initiate who hadn’t been selected as a Padawan? A Padawan still at twenty-five, only judged ready so that Master Qui-Gon could take on Anakin as a Padawan learner?

Yet it had been his master to ask Obi-Wan to take this duty, so there had been no question of not accepting.

But since the Council had refused permission, how could he hope to live up to his master’s dying request? Not to mention what to do with Anakin?

Obi-Wan gazed up at the darkening skies, searching for answers. He had tried to meditate, but his thoughts were too tangled for him to find peace and direction from the Force.

So it was up to him to find the answers.

As he looked at the skies, the deepening twilight overlaid with the yellow haze from the lights of Coruscant, he wondered: if not for all the light pollution, might he see the stars?

Might he be able to see Mandalore from here?

As much as he tried to persuade himself that Anakin would settle in well on Mandalore, that Satine would keep an eye on him and would probably arrange for Anakin’s mother to be freed and brought to Mandalore as well, Obi-Wan didn’t think it would be the right choice for Anakin. He would learn too much aggression and violence, drawing upon his innate fear and anger. Until all his kindness and goodness was snuffed out.

The only reason Obi-Wan was even considering Mandalore was because it would allow him to visit the planet. To see Anakin . . . and Satine.

Drawing in a deep breath, Obi-Wan let go of the idea of sending a little boy to a politically-unstable planet simply because Anakin’s presence might let him see the woman he--

No, there was a better option. For Anakin, for his mother . . . and for Obi-Wan.

He turned away from the view and headed inside the Temple, walking slowly to the long-range communications suite. Once he had access to a holotransmitter, he sat down and prepared what he wanted to say, then opened a channel.

Within a few moments, the person he was waiting for appeared before him, dressed elaborately as always--well, not as always, Obi-Wan admitted.

“Your Highness,” he said, bowing his head. “Thank you for allowing me to speak with you.”

“Of course, Master Kenobi,” Queen Amidala of Naboo said. “We have been making arrangements for the victory celebration and for the ceremony honoring Master Qui-Gon’s sacrifice. I understood you would be returning to Naboo for those events.”

“I will,” Obi-Wan said, feeling his heart clench at the queen’s monotone voice, talking so plainly about his master’s sacrifice.

Something flickered in the Queen’s eyes, and when she spoke again, it was in the voice he remembered Padmé using.

“I am very sorry for your loss, Obi-Wan,” she said softly. “How may I help?”

Obi-Wan cleared his throat. “Thank you, Your Highness. I . . . the Council has decided not to train Anakin.”

The Queen frowned. “An unfortunate decision.”

As much as he agreed with her, he would not second-guess the Council to an outsider. “This means that Anakin is somewhat . . . displaced. His freedom papers have been filed and his slave transmitter is deactivated, yet it is unlikely he could simply return to his mother on Tatooine.”

Lifting her head, the Queen said, “Anakin can come and live here on Naboo. And I will make arrangements to free his mother. It is the least I can do, for the assistance Anakin and Shmi provided to me while I was on Tatooine. Not to mention what Naboo owes to Anakin for destroying the droid control ship.”

A weight he hadn’t realized existed was lifted from his shoulders by the Queen’s words. Obi-Wan smiled slightly and nodded. “Thank you, Your Highness. I am very grateful to you.”

The smile on the Queen’s face was small, but no less warm. “I am grateful to you for alerting me to Anakin’s plight. I will send my Captain of the Guard to Tatooine immediately. Once Shmi is freed, she will be brought here to Naboo.”

“If I might suggest, Your Highness,” Obi-Wan said, his mind turning, “I believe Anakin would prefer to be with his mother when they both arrive on Naboo. We can meet your captain in Mos Espa and then arrange everything. That way, Anakin and his mother would have time together before the upheaval of starting over on a new planet.”

“A wise recommendation,” the Queen said, inclining her head. “Very well. I will transmit Captain Panaka’s comm frequency to you, and you can make the arrangements to meet in Mos Espa.”

“Thank you, Your Highness,” Obi-Wan replied. “I will see you on Naboo upon our arrival.”

The Queen nodded. “I look forward to it. Please tell Anakin I hope he and his mother will like living on Naboo.”

“I will,” Obi-Wan said, ending the call.

And with that done, he leaned back in his chair and drew in a breath, feeling like he could sleep for a week and meditate for another week.

But before he could rest, he would need to talk to Anakin.

XXX

It took a few hours for Obi-Wan to contact Captain Panaka and arrange their schedules. Once that was done, he went in search of Anakin.

The boy was not in Obi-Wan’s quarters or in the dining hall. That meant he was likely either in one of the hangars, investigating whatever ship he could get close to, or poking around with droids.

Reaching out with his senses, it took Obi-Wan only a few moments to find the boy.

He was in the main hangar.

Setting off, Obi-Wan moved through the corridors of the Temple, wondering what Anakin was feeling and thinking. Hoping he could find a way to break the news to Anakin without hurting him too much.

Perhaps the news of his mother being freed, of the two of them getting to live on a beautiful planet like Naboo, would help ease the sting. And certainly the Queen would watch out for Anakin, helping him get the support he needed.

Yes, this was all for the best. Even if he felt a tugging from the Force, a whisper of ‘what if?’ swirling in his mind. A ‘what if’ that spiraled in a million directions from this moment, creating so many different paths.

Once inside, he quickly spotted Anakin, taking in one of the Delta 7s.

As he got closer, he heard Anakin peppering questions at the maintenance tech, who looked relieved when he saw Obi-Wan.

“Sir, this boy--”

“Yes, it’s all right,” Obi-Wan reassured the tech before looking at Anakin. “Anakin, we need to talk.”

The light dimmed in Anakin’s face, his shoulders slumping. Obi-Wan felt himself panic and quickly crouched in front of him. “What’s wrong, Anakin?” he asked, fearing that he--and Anakin--already knew.

“I . . . I know I’m not gonna stay,” Anakin said, swallowing audibly. “Can I--can I just go back to my mom and forget all about this?”

“Anakin, I’m afraid you are right,” Obi-Wan said, doing his best to sound and act gentle. “But there are some matters I’d like to discuss with you. Would you please come with me? Someplace a bit nicer than this hangar?”

Anakin frowned, his thoughts practically visible on his face. For a flying-mad boy, no place was nicer than the hangar. But when Obi-Wan held his hand out to him, Anakin took it and allowed himself to be led away.

Obi-Wan took him to the Room of a Thousand Fountains, searching for a quiet area to sit with Anakin. In a small nook near a fountain, Obi-Wan took a seat on the grass and patted the ground beside him.

“What’s all this stuff?” Anakin asked, pointing at the grass.

“It’s called grass. On many planets, it’s as common as sand is on Tatooine,” Obi-Wan said. “Come, sit down.”

He still looked a bit hesitant, but he sank down, pulling his legs in against his chest.

When Obi-Wan looked at Anakin, he saw a sad, scared little boy. He found himself remembering his words to Qui-Gon, about how Anakin was dangerous, and wondered how he could have been so wrong.

“How did you guess that you weren’t staying, Anakin?” Obi-Wan asked, curious about his insight.

“I just . . . I felt it,” Anakin said glumly. “They don’t want me here.”

“Well, you are right,” Obi-Wan admitted. “The Council has decided not to train you, Anakin. I’m very sorry. And--and I think they’re wrong. I . . . I told Master Yoda I was willing to leave the Order to train you, if that was what you wanted.”

Anakin’s eyes widened. “What? No! You can’t leave, Obi-Wan!”

“Why not?”

“‘Cause--’cause you’re really good at all this stuff,” Anakin said. “You killed the guy that killed Master Qui-Gon, and he was the best Jedi ever. So you’re gonna be even better.”

Master Yoda often rhapsodized about children and their minds. How clearly they saw everything. As his cheeks flushed, Obi-Wan could understand what the Jedi grandmaster meant.

“That’s very kind of you, Anakin, but--but putting aside me, what do you want?” Obi-Wan asked.

Anakin went silent, hugging his knees closer to his chest. Then, in a very small voice, he said, “I want my mom.”

“More than being a Jedi? More than freeing slaves?” Obi-Wan asked, wanting Anakin to truly think about this decision, instead of just reacting from his emotions.

“More than anything,” Anakin said, looking up at him. His eyes were very blue and very determined. “She needs me.”

Obi-Wan gave Anakin a small smile. “I’m glad to hear that, Anakin. I have a plan I’d like to share with you. The Queen of Naboo has invited you to come and live there, under her protection.”

Those big blue eyes blinked, then Anakin surged to his feet. “Padmé wants me to live with her?!? Wahoo!”

It was all Obi-Wan could do not to bury his face in his hands. What was he just thinking about Anakin not being that dangerous?

“That’s not exactly what’s going to happen, Anakin,” Obi-Wan said, grasping Anakin’s sleeve. “Sit down and let me explain it to you.”

“I’m not gonna live with Padmé?” Anakin sounded almost heartbroken, which . . . which was just ridiculous. Nine-year-olds couldn’t have their heart broken, could they?

“I spoke with the Queen and you’ll live on Naboo. I’m sure she’ll arrange for you to have a home, credits, and other supplies,” Obi-Wan said. “In addition . . . your mother will be coming with you so you can live together on Naboo.”

Anakin stared at Obi-Wan, his mouth hanging open. He was as still as a statue and Obi-Wan rushed on to finish laying out the plan.

“I will take you to Tatooine, where we’ll meet Captain Panaka and arrange for your mother to be freed. Then the two of you will have time together on the shuttle to Naboo, before the Queen welcomes you to the planet.”

“Mom . . . Mom is going to be free, too?” Anakin said, still staring at Obi-Wan.

“Yes,” Obi-Wan said, his insides tied up in knots. “It was the Queen’s idea. She said she hopes you both like living on Naboo.”

The boy jumped to his feet and threw his arms around Obi-Wan’s neck, hugging him tightly. “Of course we’re gonna like it! Naboo is, like, the best planet in the whole galaxy!”

Obi-Wan breathed out a soft chuckle and patted Anakin’s back. “I’m glad you like my plan.”

Pulling back, Anakin beamed at Obi-Wan. “Of course it was your plan. Like I said, you’re gonna be the best Jedi ever.”

Before Obi-Wan could tell Anakin that there was no need for such flattery, he was asking questions, the words tumbling out of him. When would they leave? What kind of ship were they taking? Could he fly it for some of the time? Were they really going to be able to free his mom, since Watto wouldn’t sell her before? How long would it take them to get to Tatooine? How long would it take to get to Naboo from Tatooine?

Finally managing to get a word in edgewise, Obi-Wan said, “We’re going to leave just as soon as I’ve packed a few things. So we’ll just need to stop by our quarters and then we can go.”

Anakin reached out and took Obi-Wan’s hand, pulling him up with surprising strength. “Let’s move!”

There was so much vitality and life in Anakin. Obi-Wan found himself wishing he felt like that. Instead of feeling tired and numb like he did whenever Anakin wasn’t around.

But Anakin had made his choice. Being with his mother, living on Naboo--it would be good for him. And it was his choice--perhaps the first choice he had ever gotten to make in his life.

That was what mattered most.

XXX

Quarsh Panaka, Captain of the Royal Naboo Security Forces, was well aware that few planets could approach Naboo for beauty. But as blessed as Naboo was in resources, the planet he was standing on now was cursed by its lack.

Because on Tatooine, the only resource seemed to be sand.

Accompanied by the Queen’s lead handmaiden, Panaka had landed in Mos Espa a few hours ago. Already, all manner of individuals had noticed their presence and attempted to con, cheat or threaten him.

In a way, it was refreshing. By his nature and by his training, Panaka was suspicious of anyone and everyone. So seeing people act so cravenly, seeking only to satisfy their self-interest? At least it made his job easy.

“So this is Tatooine. Padmé didn’t exaggerate: this place is horrible.”

With a rueful smile, Panaka turned to Sabé. “I suppose her experiences here weren’t the easiest. But this is a simple operation. Meet up with the Jedi and the boy, buy the boy’s mother, and then back home.”

Sabé looked a touch doubtful. “Padmé said that Master Qui-Gon tried to free Anakin’s mother, but her owner wouldn’t allow it.”

“Her Highness has ordered me to pay any price for Shmi Skywalker,” Panaka reassured her. “We’ll manage it.”

Nodding, Sabé reached up to secure the hair blown into her face by a gust of wind. “Is it a sandstorm?” she asked.

“No--the Jedi is arriving,” Panaka said, pointing to a small craft landing in the bay next to theirs. “Right on time, too.”

Within a few moments, the ramp for the ship lowered and a small, sandy-haired boy dashed out of the ship, followed by a young man in Jedi robes.

“Hi!” Anakin said brightly. “Captain Panaka, right?”

“That’s right,” Panaka said, eyeing the reason for all this work. “Nice to see you again, Anakin.”

He looked up and nodded to the Jedi. “Master Kenobi. You remember Sabé, the Queen’s handmaiden.”

Kenobi looked at Sabé, a corner of his mouth quirking upwards. “I do remember Sabé, although it’s nice to meet her as herself.”

Sabé grinned impishly then shrugged her shoulders. “I take the Queen’s safety very seriously. Almost as seriously as Captain Panaka.”

“It was you being the Queen when Padmé was being herself, right?” Anakin asked. Panaka looked around for any eavesdroppers, feeling fortunate that Skywalker didn’t have one of those booming child voices.

“That’s right,” Sabé said, crouching in front of him. “Now, how about you show us to your mother’s house, so we can tell her the good news?”

With a wide smile, Anakin grabbed Sabé’s hand and led her out of the docking bay, chattering away. That left Panaka to bring up the rear with Kenobi.

“Kid seems okay with not being a Jedi,” Panaka commented after a few minutes of silence.

“For now,” Kenobi said, his hands folded into the sleeves of his robes. “Eventually, though, he might change his mind. But at least he’ll have his mother with him.”

Panaka nodded. “And y’know. Kids are resilient. So they say.”

Kenobi nodded, seemingly not interested in further conversation. Panaka didn’t take it personally. Jedi, like royalty, were their own class with their own quirks. You couldn’t take anything they did as a reflection of what they actually thought or felt.

As they walked towards Shmi Skywalker’s house, Panaka found himself watching Anakin. The boy was . . . odd. He pulled Sabé back from the street just before an old, clanking speeder came whizzing past. It would have hit Sabé if she had been crossing.

Of course, Skywalker knew his hometown, knew what to expect. And he probably heard the speeder coming. But still--it was odd.

He still didn’t know if he liked Queen Amidala putting out so much to save one woman and her son. Of course, even his paranoid mind could see the Skywalkers’ initial meeting with the Queen was pure chance. But still--what if it backfired on the Queen?

Ah, well. He’d be there if it did backfire. Besides, Anakin Skywalker had something about him. Odd, yeah, but also . . . interesting.

Panaka found himself wondering what was going to happen to the kid once he and his mom arrived on Naboo. But he thought it was going to work out okay.

XXX

Part of her wished she didn’t need to make a formal welcome for Anakin and Shmi Skywalker. She would like to greet them more casually, as Padmé instead of Queen Amidala.

But the reason she had been allowed to free Anakin’s mother through an outlay of not just her own personal funds, but a portion of Naboo’s revenues, was to honor the Hero of Naboo. So there had to be publicity and ceremony for the occasion.

Flanked by her handmaidens in pale lilac gowns, Padmé stood in the reception room of the Royal Palace, dressed in a heavy, deep purple gown. She fought the urge to fidget as they waited for the arrival of Captain Panaka, Sabé and the Skywalkers, feeling curious about how Anakin was doing.

He must be disappointed about not being trained as a Jedi. In truth, Padmé was also disappointed. It made her think the Jedi were as broken as the Republic was. Perhaps it was naïve of her to think so, to have such a dim view of the Jedi after they made one decision she hadn’t agreed with. But then, Naboo elected teenagers to the throne and sought the guidance of children due to their innocent wisdom.

And she didn’t think having a lack of faith in the Jedi was foolish. It seemed wise. Especially right now.

After what felt like an eternity, the doors of the reception room opened, the holocamera drones capturing every moment of the procession. Captain Panaka was the first in the room, followed by Sabé and then Master Kenobi, looking every inch the Jedi. And there was Anakin, clutching Shmi’s hand and beaming at everyone he made eye contact with.

But Padmé thought his smile grew a bit bigger when he saw her.

Shmi looked overwhelmed and kept smoothing her hair, but her smile was the same gentle, kind one Padmé had seen on Tatooine.

Padmé waited for Anakin and Shmi to reach her, then spoke in her Queen Amidala voice. “Anakin Skywalker, Shmi Skywalker, welcome to Naboo. In recognition of your assistance to ourselves and the people of Naboo, you are now citizens of this planet, with all entitled rights and privileges. It is the least we can do to honor your service and sacrifice.”

As planned, Padmé bowed, followed by her handmaidens. Jar-Jar Binks, the Gungan representative who had stayed blessedly silent until then, let out a cheer that rocked the room.

Master Kenobi leaned forward and spoke softly to Anakin and then Shmi, obviously prompting them. Shmi said quietly, in a voice filled with gratitude, “Thank you, my lady.”

But Anakin wasn’t content with a simple thank you. He dashed forward and kneeled in front of Padmé. “Thank you, Your Highness, and I promise, I’ll do everything I can to protect you and Naboo!”

A wave of amused chuckles rang out, but Padmé wanted to honor Anakin’s sweet response. “We have every confidence in you, Anakin Skywalker.”

He rose with a wide smile on his face, looking at her with stars in his eyes, and Padmé couldn’t help smiling back.

With that, the formal ceremony was over and the holocameras were switched off. The reception room emptied out a bit, with most of the guests exiting through the doors into the gardens for refreshments.

Left alone with the Skywalkers and Master Kenobi, Padmé gave Sabé a smile of welcome, glad to have her back by her side. Then she stepped over to Shmi and Anakin. “I hope the ceremony wasn’t too overwhelming,” she said to Shmi.

“Sabé prepared us on our trip,” Shmi said, still smoothing back her hair. “It’s so kind of you, Your Highness. All that you’ve done for Anakin and I . . .”

“I was happy to help when Master Kenobi informed me the Jedi would not be training Anakin,” Padmé said, meaning it with all her heart.

Shmi’s eyes darkened slightly, then she looked down at Anakin. “Ani, why don’t you go have some food? You could also get me some water, if you don’t mind.”

“Mom, I’ll be good,” Anakin protested.

She smiled gently at her son, but spoke firmly. “I know you will be. Go along.”

“I’ll go with Anakin if he’d like the company,” Master Kenobi said, stepping forward.

Anakin still looked torn, but then he allowed Obi-Wan to escort him out to the gardens.

Padmé waited until they were both out of earshot, then looked at Shmi. The older woman took a deep breath. “Your Highness, I don’t know how I’ll ever be able to thank you. For myself and for Ani.”

Stepping forward, Padmé took Shmi’s hands, feeling the rough skin and calluses. “You can thank me by being happy. By raising Anakin in freedom and by living a life without hardship.”

Shmi’s eyes glistened, but she held back her tears. “How, though? I . . . I have so few skills . . .”

“You’re a wonderful mother. That’s a very important skill,” Padmé said. “You remind me of my mother, so I know you’ll be fine. And you’ll have Sabé to help you--she’ll be with you to get you settled in Moenia, which is her hometown.”

“Oh,” Shmi said, looking surprised. “Really?”

Padmé nodded and gestured to her handmaiden. “Sabé will tell you more. But first--anything you or Anakin need, you will have.” She gently squeezed Shmi’s hands. “Anakin is a Hero of Naboo. He’s already made us proud, even before he became a Nabooian. I know you and Anakin will keep making us proud.”

As Padmé hoped, her words seemed to reassure Shmi. Her face relaxed and she squeezed Padmé’s hands back. She opened her mouth, but couldn’t seem to find the words. So she just smiled at Padmé, a smile that reminded her of Anakin’s.

With a smile of her own, Padmé stepped back. “I’ll let you and Sabé discuss the arrangements she’s made so far.”

At this moment, Eirtaé quietly said to Padmé, “Your Highness, you have your weekly meeting with Governor Bibble and the other planetary leaders.”

“Thank you, Eirtaé,” Padmé said, holding back her sigh. She wished she could say goodbye to Anakin, but hopefully that would happen before the Skywalkers left for Moenia.

After all, the Skywalkers were now under her protection, like all the other citizens of Naboo. She wanted to do her duty to them.

So Padmé left the reception room, heading to the throne room, mentally preparing for all the responsibilities awaiting her.

XXX

The planet of Naboo was like something out of a dream. She had lived on several different planets, but none of them could compare to Naboo. The lakes, the grasslands, the gently rolling hills . . .

Watching Anakin explore the gardens, his eyes lighting up with every new discovery--this was the kind of life she had always wanted for him. The life she thought he might have with the Jedi.

Shmi was worried about Anakin. How would he feel once the novelty of this new life faded? Would he always want that other life, a life with the Jedi? Would he look to the stars, like he did on Tatooine, and feel like his place was among them?

But perhaps it would be different. Her daring, impulsive, bright boy could stay with her now. She could watch him grow up, could help him with his struggles. Maybe that would be enough.

And maybe she was just being a worrywart, Shmi silently conceded with a smile.

“Mom, Mom!” Anakin came running up to her and grabbed her hand. “You gotta come feel the grass! It’s so cool and so soft! Not like sand at all.”

“All right, Ani, I’m coming,” she said with a soft laugh.

Her son pulled her over to a far corner of the garden, where a stretch of grass was surrounded by flowering bushes and tall trees. The soft chirping of birds and the hum of insects were the only sounds. It was all so peaceful and serene. Like nothing bad could ever happen here.

Of course, she knew that only a short time ago, a great battle had been fought here. But still . . . this planet was so quiet.

Anakin flopped down on the grass and grinned up at her. She sank down beside him, reaching out to run her fingertips over the grass. As he had promised, it was soft and cool--so comfortable to sit upon.

She smiled and reached out to stroke his hair, which was just as soft as the grass. “Are you happy, Ani?”

He nodded eagerly. “I’m so glad you’re here, Mom.” His expression dimmed and he moved closer to her. “I hated to leave you behind. It . . . it didn’t feel right.”

“I know, Ani,” she said, still stroking his hair. “But you know, some day, you’ll need to leave me. When you want to go to school, or when you get married, or if you go off-planet . . .”

“None of that’s gonna happen for years,” Anakin said. “Besides, I’m gonna marry Padmé, so we’ll be staying here.”

As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he turned bright red and rolled over, hiding his face against the grass. Shmi ignored the grass stains his clothes were acquiring and rested her hand on his back.

“I mean . . . I’m not really gonna marry her, I know,” Anakin said, his voice muffled against the grass. “But--but she’s so nice, Mom. And really smart.”

“Padmé is a wonderful person. The fact that you like her means you are very smart, Ani,” Shmi said, smiling softly at his back. “I like her, too. And I’m very grateful for everything she’s done for us.”

Anakin rolled over enough to look at her. “Yeah?”

Shmi nodded. “Yes. We’re going to have a little house in a town called Moenia. Padmé is sending Sabé with us, to help us get used to Naboo and introduce us to people there. Moenia is where Sabé grew up.”

“Wait, we’re not staying here in Theed?” Anakin asked, sitting up. “Why not?”

“Padmé thought we would like it better in Moenia,” Shmi said. “If we stayed here in Theed, Sabé explained, we’d get followed by holocameras and bothered by reporters. And that would make it harder for us to get used to our new life.”

His eyebrows drew together. “But I want to live in Theed.”

“Ani,” Shmi said gently, “just because we’re going to be living in Moenia, that doesn’t mean you won’t be able to visit Theed and see Padmé.”

There was a stubborn cast to his expression, but Shmi could feel the emotions churning inside her son. This reaction wasn’t only about not seeing Padmé. She reached out and pulled him close to her, thankful that he was still small enough to cuddle against her.

“Moenia is a new place for both of us. We won’t know anyone, we don’t know much about life on Naboo, and it’ll be very scary for both of us,” she said softly. “But I’m also excited. We get to learn so much, Ani. You’re going to go to school for the first time. I’m going to find a job and make credits I’ll get to keep, for the first time in my life.”

Closing her eyes, Shmi rested her face against Anakin’s sun-bright hair. “Do you remember what I told you before you left Tatooine?”

Anakin’s voice was soft against her shoulder. “That I can’t stop change any more than I can stop the suns from setting.”

“That’s right,” she said, feeling the pride swell within her. “And now, we won’t be facing change alone. We’ll have each other.”

“I love you, Ani,” she said softly.

Suddenly, his arms were wrapped tightly around her neck. “I love you, too, Mom,” he said, his voice so fierce and determined. “As long as we have each other, we’ll be okay.”

“Of course we’ll be okay,” she said, hugging him back.

In this moment, Shmi Skywalker truly believed they would be okay. It wasn’t like her to be so optimistic--she would describe herself as pragmatic or realistic--but all of her most secret dreams and wishes had come true. She and Ani were safe and free, on a planet with no war and little crime, under the protection of the planet’s leader.

No, they would be better than okay--they would be happy. Just as Padmé wanted for them.

Just as Shmi wanted, too.

End, Chapter 1

#anidala #anakin skywalker #padme amidala #star wars #my fic #varykinovember #go with your heart

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flutteringphalanges · 4 years ago

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Summary: “Am I in Hell?” Agatha’s voice was hoarse, a hint of fear in her tone. “That depends on your definition,” Dracula answered. “Perhaps.” His fingers felt cool against her burning skin, the fever raging through her body. “If you’re going to kill me, then do it,” she mumbled. The count chuckled, gazing into her eyes. “On the contrary,” he smirked. “I’m going to save you.”

((In which Dracula cares for a gravely ill Agatha))

Characters: Agatha Van Helsing/Dracula

Rating: M

Read on FFN and AO3

A/N: Thank you all so much for your support! It means the world! Quick shout out to @rheabalaur! She is incredibly knowledgeable about the history of Dracula and Vlad Tepes and though I ended up not exploring human!Drac in this chapter, I wanted to thank her! She’s got some neat posts on the history and I learned a lot! Anywho, feedback is greatly loved and appreciated! Here is the next chapter!

Chapter Ten (Part Two)

Psychosomatic heart palpitations. The only diagnoses one can give to someone whose heart has stopped so long ago. Settled deep behind his rib cage, Count Dracula could almost swear he felt the dead organ pound against his ancient bones. Its rapid beating battering against his ear drums. Agatha Van Helsing was gone. Vanished without a trace except for a final message scribbled hastily on a scrap of paper. And it was all his fault.

"Fuck, Agatha!" He cursed, feeling the draft from the air outside. She'd neglected to close the doors properly, though that was beside the point. The cold temperature didn't bother him. No, he was immune. But she wasn't. "Dammit!"

Transformation. On foot. But there was the issue of his missing boots. The vampire's mind reeled a million miles a second. Usually he was so good thinking on his feet. Decisions coming easily to his mind. Yet there he was, standing hopelessly like a fool, trying to devise a plan. A way to find her. Agatha. His Agatha. In all of his centuries of life, never had he made such a fatal mistake.

He stared down at the corpse of the young man whose lifeless brown eyes gazed back at him. His skin was so pale, almost lily white after being completely drained of blood. Dracula let out a grunt, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. Sloppy. Careless. His new existence as a vampire had yet to come easy to him. Despite being a learned man, he was well on his way of opening Pandora's box if he wasn't careful.

"Oh don't look so stoic." The vampire exhaled, glancing up to the dark sky. "You were far from valuable to begin with. Now what to do with you…"

Thunder rumbled overhead and small raindrops began to fall from above. Dracula frowned and glanced towards the direction of his castle. Experimentation. Understanding what he was didn't just fall on his shoulders. No. There was something interesting he witnessed with each new kill. From cradle to grave and from grave to coffin. Dying from one life into the next. A small smirk crossed his features as lightning crackled from above.

"Perhaps you will prove more use to me after all." He stated, lifting the body with ease. "So we shall see…"

By some stroke of sheer luck, Dracula managed to come across a pair of old boots tucked away in an old closet. Dusty, they gave off an unpleasant smell that even he found rather foul. But his own comfort was far from his concern. Slipping them forcefully on, he hurried out through the front doors and into the winter elements. Going bravely forth into the bitter snowstorm that had begun to stir from its sleep again.

His pace was brisk, each long stride with purpose as he walked away from the castle. Much to his misfortune, the fresh snow had completely covered the ground, burying with it any sign of Agatha's tracks. Not even transforming into a wolf would help at this stage. No. He couldn't sense her and that alone terrified him. If she was...no, no he couldn't think like that. So he pressed on, faster now.

Lovech Province, Bulgaria. At least, that's what he had learned from her blood. A pretty little thing, traveling alone to meet relatives in a nearby village. She'd been an easy target and quite an interesting one at that. Someone he had deemed worthy enough to keep.

"Please!" Dracula heard her wail from her box. "Please let me go! I'm so thirsty!"

"No." The vampire replied simply, so casually as if he was merely telling her the time of day. "No, I think it's best you stay put for now. Don't worry, I'll take good care of you. I always do with my brides."

Brides. He scoffed at his own term. It had been something he had come up with after holding captive several of his victims. Dracula needed to, after all, have some sort of name for them. In a sense, it seemed fitting. They were his after all. Property. Like cattle. Valuable, unusual stock that any bidder would desire and yet not know the horrors they were getting into.

"Let me go!" The woman pleaded. "Please, I promise I won't tell anyone! Just free me!"

"I shall return later." Dracula sighed as he ignored her screams of protest. "Perhaps with something to eat if I feel willing." He paused before looking over his shoulder. "And do try to keep the wailing to a minimum. I hate how it echoes throughout the halls."

Brides. Cattle. He grinned to himself as he exited the cellar. Disposable indeed.

"Agatha!"

He mentally cursed the howling wind that drowned out his voice each time he called out for her. Of all the times for her to disappear, of course it had to be in the middle of a blizzard. On many occasions she had threatened to leave, but the vampire had never thought she'd go through with it. If he had, if he had half the mind to, maybe he could've prevented this. All of this. If he had just been honest. Maybe she'd still be safe. Warm. Tucked away with him in the castle. But she wasn't and he was to blame.

"AGATHA!"

He hadn't quite expected his time with Jonathan Harker to turn the way that it had. It wasn't often that Dracula was left to deal with a slip up-if one would even call it that-but he found himself in a quite peculiar situation. An instance that led him to the steps of St. Mary's Convent in Budapest, Hungary. To her.

Agatha Van Helsing was a creature he'd never seen before. Such wit. Such spirit. She did not fear him like the others. She tested him like a fishman precariously dangling bait off the side of a boat where a shark was spotted. And that very moment when those few drops of her blood met his tongue it was a euphoria he couldn't explain. Seeing glimpses of her past. Of her history. Of who she was and of him. Of the infamous Abraham Van Helsing who had proven for a while to be a thorn in his side. Her grandfather. The product of a vampire slayer. And Dracula wanted...no, needed more.

The next course of action ended grizzly, not that he was quite surprised. But it wasn't until he came upon Agatha and that innocent, weakling Mina that his desire for the nun became curious. In any given dangerous situation, one must choose fight or flight. To defend yourself against your enemy and possibly die, or to out run them in the hopes of living. Agatha did neither. Instead, she offered herself in place of Mina. Seemingly cared nothing for her own life but only that of the woman's.

And so against what he thought at the time was his better judgement, he freed them both. Unknowing that soon enough fate would have them meet again under even stranger circumstances. How delectable and useful just a small amount of blood could be.

He couldn't smell her. No matter how far he walked, he still had yet to pick up any of her scent. That gave him some hope that maybe she hadn't injured herself. That perhaps she had found someone by some chance who had given her a ride somewhere. Unlikely as it was, it gave him a false sense of peace.

But due to the hindrance of his tracking abilities, a part of the Count began to wonder if Agatha's former Convent's beloved God was punishing him. That perhaps his version of Hell was not having her. Losing her. And who was he to deny that truth? Hell had frozen over and with it the former nun's mysterious disappearance. Dammit, Agatha, where could she have gone?

Dracula found himself staring at her for hours when he had first brought her to his castle. Watched as her chest rose and fell with each unstable breath. How her creamy skin was blotched by the red of the fever. At any point he could've killed her. Any second. With how ill she was, she wouldn't even see it coming. But she didn't. Instead, he observed. Quiet as his unaware guest rested.

When she did wake, truly became aware of her surroundings, it was a fond memory. How furious she was. How spiteful. After everything he'd done, Agatha showed no sign of gratitude and quite frankly, the vampire took no offense to that. She was merely an experiment after all. Someone he desired to learn more about. Except, he never expected it to go as far as it did.

"Fuck!"

Dracula's arms shielded him out of pure reflex as a tree fell just a yard away, spraying him with the wet snow that had clung to its branches. He wiped the substance away, his skin cool enough that it didn't immediately melt on impact. The way it clung to his clothes like some form of unwanted camouflage. For the first time in a long, long while, he was starting to despise the stuff.

"Agatha!" He tried again, this time louder. "Agatha, answer me! Where are you?!"

But only the storm returned his calling.

Emotions. Perhaps that's why he found it confusing at first. These feelings that no cold blooded person should experience. But the first real flicker struck him the moment he saw her wearing the dress he'd gotten her to replace that dreadful habit of hers.

Dracula thought of them. The hundreds-thousands of women he'd seen throughout his lifetime. Many whose beauty was beyond compare. But Agatha was different. Something about her, the way she stood there before him. There was so much he wanted to say. And at the same time, he wasn't sure what.

"Well," she said testily. "If it looks bad on me, you might as well-"

"No," he interjected. "No. You look...lovely."

Lovely. Out of everything he could've said, those were the words to spill past his lips. She blushed, but it wasn't the same color as her fever. No, this was different. So it truly began. The start of something he had very much yet to comprehend.

It was growing darker outside and Dracula knew it wasn't just because of the storm. He began to pick up his pace, fear beginning to rise even further than before. How long had he been asleep? A few hours at most? Could she really have gotten this far?

That's when he smelled it. The very faint, but familiar scent of blood. An aroma he was so familiar with that his stomach dropped at the realization. Agatha. It was Agatha. And the sweetness he associated with it only made him want to gag. His worries had been confirmed. Something had happened to his nun.

Maybe it was when they lost control over dinner and ended up having sex so rough, the aftermath of their heated lovemaking shouted to the heavens the next day. Or when she got so furious with him once, she broke her hand against his face. But perhaps the moment it really dawned on him that his feelings for Agatha Van Helsing were far from just a whim of passion was that night he truly tasted her.

The way she trembled against his touch. How he had to hold her as he ran his tongue across the inner thigh and to her very center. Sweet, like her blood, and he savored her like a fine wine. It hadn't been rough. Fueled by aggression. No, the way she melted into him was something far different. And when he was finally inside of her, that same sense of euphoria that he'd experienced those several, several months ago struck him. And he lost it. Completely gave way and pierced his teeth into Agatha's sensitive flesh. Blessed with her indulgence once more. That was his first mistake.

The smell of fresh blood was stronger now and Dracula followed it like a bloodhound. Though he knew he had to be drawing closer, how potent it was becoming only left his stomach twisting into knots. This wasn't a mere scratch. Not with how intense the smell was. There was a significant amount and the vampire dreaded what that could mean. What the outcome he was about to face was. How he wished Agatha had just gone ahead and staked him.

Cruel. That was the proper description for his next actions. Never mind triggering Agatha with old memories of Abraham-a man he knew well enough while, not evil, lacked any sort of endearment towards his granddaughter. He only furthered his stupidity when he abandoned her afterwards, leaving what should've been a good moment with a negative, abrupt ending.

In an almost sadistic, poetic way, the stake to his heart had been the final straw that broke the camel's back. The moment where Agatha's walls completely crumbled to the ground. Where she had, in her actions, admitted her true feelings when he had not. Metaphorically piercing her own heart when she should've done his. And he smiled. Grinned and waved away her affections. If only he realized the cost. The consequences. Those few words scrawled upon a strip of parchment.

Something caused him to stop in his tracks. Not the giant branch that blocked his path, but the feeling that there was something else. And so he hesitantly gazed over the edge, over a set of ragged rocks that dropped down several yards to the bottom. That's when he saw her. A figure lying motionless below wet by something other than snow. Dark. Even from where he stood, his excellent vision could make it out. Blood. Agatha.

"Agatha!"

Dracula leaped with such grace it made the long drop seem like a mere step. He hurried over to her side. Blood. There was so much blood. It stained the rock around her, caked locks of her hair together. And for a brief moment, for a fraction of a second, the vampire thought he was too late. It was only when he heard her pulse, the weak thrumming of her heart, that he knew she was alive. Barely. But still with him. As he exhaled in relief, her eyes opened.

Quickly he knelt beside her, the smell of her blood burning his nostrils. Thirst. Hunger. But he fought it. Battle the feral urge to feast within him. Dracula's hands were warm, sticky and red as he cradled her head ever so gently. She stared back at him unfocused.

The Count wanted to berate her. Scream at her for being so boneheaded. But not because he was furious with her. No, she had terrified him. So many questions. So much to say. Yet he couldn't. There wasn't any time to do so. He was losing her. Right there in his arms, the only person he'd truly ever cared about was withering away. He couldn't let that happen.

"You're dying." And the words held far more emotion than he'd ever had anticipated. "Agatha..."

"I know," she croaked.

The way she said it. Her tone. She wasn't afraid. Far worse. It was as if she was more than willing to accept this horrid fate. This end where one no longer exists. And he had planted the seed that made her okay with that.

"I can save you." There was a tremor in his voice. "This doesn't have to be the end. Let me..." He swallowed, damn how he hated to sound vulnerable. "Let me..."

There was a moment of pause as Agatha struggled to catch a breath. It ached deep within him to hear the pain as she did so. She was so strong. Even in death, she fought with bravery. What a soldier she would've made. What a companion in his human lifetime she would've been.

"Tell me..." Blood bubbled up in the corner of her mouth as she struggled to remain conscious. "Tell me..."

"Agatha!" He spoke to her loudly, trying desperately to keep her awake. "Tell you what?" But the Count already knew what she meant. "Tell you what?!"

"Just..." She was fading now. Fading so fast. "Tell me..."

Tell her. He looked deep within her blue eyes as the light began to fade in them. Tried to hold her stare so she knew he really meant it. Weeks. Months. It was so long overdue and this was far from how he wanted to ever admit it. Open up to her like she had him. But now he needed to. So he swallowed, swallowed so thick as if his very life was caught in his throat.

"I love you." A statement so foreign, and yet, felt so right. Something wet brushed against his cheek. A tear. Was he crying? "I love you, Agatha Van Helsing."

A weight lifted off his shoulders. The entire universe relieving him of the pressure he'd felt for so long. He gazed down at her so longingly it was as if everything had stopped around them. Waited for her final words. Praying she'd give into his demands.

Agatha smiled weakly and closed her eyes at his confession. "Okay," his lover murmured. "Okay…"

And Dracula's fangs plunged into her throat.

#Dracula #Dracula 2020 #Dragatha #Agatha Van Helsing #Dracula x Agatha #Bad Moon Rising

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